Page 7 - ARUBA TODAY

A7
U.S. NEWS Friday 27 OctOber 2017

NY woman missing since ‘75 found alive in Massachusetts

MONTICELLO, N.Y. (AP) — A northwest of New York City.
woman who disappeared When he returned to pick
from upstate New York af- her up, she wasn’t there.
ter being dropped off for Police periodically re-
a doctor’s appointment 42 viewed her missing person
years ago has been found case but kept hitting dead
suffering from dementia ends. They got a break
and living in an assisted- in September, thanks to
living facility in Massachu- a query from a New York
setts, authorities said. State Police investigator
The sheriff’s office in Sulli- working on a different cold
van County, New York, said case. The unidentified re-
Flora Stevens, 78, was using mains of a woman had
the last name Harris when been found in neighbor-
detectives tracked her ing Orange County, and
down this week at the resi- the investigator said they
dence in Lowell, near Bos- roughly matched Stevens’
ton. Officials said they’ve general characteristics.
been unable to figure out The state police investiga-
details of what happened tors asked Sullivan County
to her between the time for help tracking down any
she disappeared in August relatives who could pro-
1975 and when she was fi- vide a DNA sample for pos-
nally found. sible identification. During
“It’s not too often we get to a records search, Detec- This October 2017 photo shows Flora Harris with Sullivan County Sheriff’s Detective Ed Clouse, left,
solve a 42-year-old missing- tive Rich Morgan discov- and Detective Rich Morgan, right, at an assisted living residence in Lowell, Mass. Harris, who dis-
person case,” Sheriff Mike ered someone was using appeared from upstate New York in 1975 has been found suffering from dementia and living in an
assisted-living facility in Massachusetts, authorities said.
Schiff said in a press re- Stevens’ Social Security (Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office via AP)
lease. “The main thing is we number in Massachusetts.
know Flora is safe.” Deputies tracked the num- tective went there Tuesday police said. But the detec- her new name show she
Police said Stevens was a ber to the Lowell assisted- and confirmed Harris was tives brought along Ste- lived in nursing homes in
36-year-old employee of living residence, where actually the Flora Stevens vens’ employee photo New Hampshire and New
a Catskills resort when her staff confirmed the num- who had disappeared in identification card from York City before arriving in
husband dropped her off ber belonged to a resident 1975. the now-defunct Concord Lowell, police said. Stevens’
for a doctor’s appointment named Flora Harris, who Because of her condition, Resort, and she recognized husband died in 1985, and
at a hospital in Monticello, has lived there since 2001. she couldn’t provide de- herself, officials said. she apparently has no liv-
75 miles (121 kilometers) Morgan and another de- tails of her life since then, Her medical records under ing relatives, officials said.q
Texas police search for clues in case of unidentified child

By CLAUDIA LAUER no one has reported him ite sketch nationally for a will stick with her until police ment. She’s drawn rough-
Associated Press missing.“We’re waiting on relative to identify the little have answers, including ly six portraits of children
DALLAS (AP) — Police are the medical examiner’s re- girl nicknamed Baby Grace knowing his name.“There whose bodies were found
sifting through hundreds of port to determine a cause whose body was found in is this feeling while this lit- in the last 35 years and
tips and leads to discover of death. But we’re work- late October 2007 by a fish- tle boy isn’t unidentified. I didn’t match any missing
the name of a little boy ing with the FBI now, as erman on the beach of an don’t know what else I can person reports. All of them
whose body was found on well as other federal and uninhabited island off the do and I’m hoping (the have been identified, she
a beach in Southeast Texas state agencies to really coast of Galveston. Lois portrait) will help. That’s said. Some took months to
last week. It’s the second strategize the best way to Gibson, the forensic artist why I did the drawing Satur- name after she drew them.
time in a decade that resi- move forward with the in- who drew the little girl iden- day night. It couldn’t wait,” Others, like Baby Grace,
dents and law enforcement vestigation,” said Galves- tified later as 2-year-old Gibson said. “I just want to only took days.Gibson said
in Galveston have strug- ton police Capt. Joshua Riley Ann Sawyers, drew tell whoever knows this little she was at a restaurant
gled to identify a lifeless Schirard. “We’ve gotten the unidentified boy for a boy, just come forward. with her daughter when a
child found on the shores probably close to a thou- sketch released nationally Just let us know, let us help police officer, who knew
of their beach community. sand tips from the news sto- earlier this week.The His- work this out. Somebody her from a 2001 case of an
The Galveston Police De- ries and social media posts panic boy weighed about knows.”Gibson has drawn unidentified little girl that
partment is working with that have been out there. 30 pounds, was between more than a thousand sus- wasn’t solved until seven
federal and state agencies We’re hopeful we’ll have 3 and 5 years old and was pects and age-progressed months after her drawing,
in a national search for the more information soon.” about 3 feet tall. Gibson portraits as part of her job called to tell her detectives
young Hispanic boy’s iden- It took only a few days after said the child’s big brown as a forensic artist at the had identified Baby Grace
tity — and to find out why police released a compos- eyes and long eyelashes Houston Police Depart- as Riley Ann Sawyers.q