Police, Community, Media Combine to Find Missing Senior

On April 9, 76-year-old Norman Gray, who lives with dementia, left for a walk from his North York home, and did not return.

“Very quickly, we found out that he suffered from dementia. And there was a great concern around his safety,” 31 Division Superintendent Andy Singh said. “We set up a command post in the area of Jane and Wilson. What ensued after was truly teamwork at its besat.”

Investigators from 31 Division immediately began a high priority search, canvassing for witnesses and video, trying to get a sense of the direction he was traveling.

The Missing Persons team was involved quickly, helping investigators at 31 collect and sift through information.

“We put together all the information and sent it off to be published to help make the public aware,” 31 Division Detective Corina Loucks said, of engaging traditional and social media channels through Corporate Communications.

Regular updates were also provided to the media, to keep the public’s attention on the case.

“I think that’s really important in this case,” Loucks said. “Because eventually, after 52 hours, a lovely crossing guard noticed him from a bulletin and a news story.”

Amy Grozelle, a crossing guard and former personal support worker, was on her way home when she struck up a conversation with a man in the street.

“I always talk to everybody, so I just started with a ‘Hi, how are you?’” she said. “He said, ‘I’m tired, I’m exhausted’, and it got the wheels spinning in my head.”

It then clicked for Grozelle when she noticed streaks of white hair sticking out from under his hood, reminding of a phone alert she had gotten earlier in the day, and the news the night before.

She stayed with Norman, giving him an iced tea and chatting about his daughters she had seen on the news asking the public for help.

“I saw a police car and I pulled them over and, I told them, I think this is your senior that you're missing.”

She had found Gray at Eastern and Carlaw Aves., nearly at the other end of the city from the west side of North York.

Gray was taken to hospital to be evaluated, and the attending officers radioed in that he had been located.

“I did not believe that my dad was found, and to get the confirmation that he was, I was overjoyed,” said his daughter Latoya Gray. “This feeling of relief came over me suddenly, I felt the exhaustion of the past two days and tears of joy rolled down my face. All my sisters, we hugged each other. We were just so happy that he had been found and this ordeal was over.”

On April 21, the Gray family invited Amy and the officers who had worked the case to a reception to say thank you and express their gratitude for the work of police and the humanity of a kind stranger.

“She's given my family another opportunity to be with my dad,” Latoya said of Amy. “We had to come here today just to say thank you. And also to thank TPS for their exceptional job in locating my dad. They worked tirelessly to find my father, and for that we are eternally grateful.”