By JAMES MITCHELL
Sunday Times Newspapers
TAYLOR — A tense few days last week came to a sad ending when police located a 74-year-old dementia patient who’d gone missing. Police Cmdr. Mary Sclabassi confirmed that Robert Flaherty had been found, deceased, Wednesday morning.
Sclabassi said police began looking for Flaherty after a family member discovered his absence Monday afternoon from his house in the 14000 block of Racho Road. Surveillance video images from the neighborhood showed Flaherty walking south on Racho, and police, K-9 dogs and Michigan State Police helicopters searched the area Tuesday and Wednesday.
Flaherty’s body was found in a vacant field near the intersection of Racho and Eureka roads.
“Our condolences go out to the Flaherty family,” Sclabassi said. “We were hoping for a different ending.”
Sclabassi said there were no signs of foul play and that further confirmation awaited a report from the medical examiner’s office.
Flaherty’s family said that he did not have his medication with him at the time of his disappearance.
(James Mitchell can be reached at [email protected].)