So, back to our discussion about the mysterious disappearance of Jack Gordon. When dealing with elderly missing persons, the health status of the individual must come under consideration. Jack Gordon was 77 years old at the time of his disappearance. For many years he had suffered from occasional bouts of vertigo, with sudden dizziness and loss of balance. He had borderline high blood pressure, not out of the ordinary for a man his age. About a year and half before he disappeared he had experienced a minor stroke, but had physically recuperated completely from that, without any apparent long-term neurologic deficits (weakness, slurred speech, etc.). His mind was active and engaged, he did not have Alzheimer's, elderly dementia or senility.
Jack did not exercise. I never knew him to take a long walk when a short walk would do and I never knew him to take a short walk when a comfortable chair was handy. If he wandered away from his property that day in 2008 he did not walk far.
Jack's mental health was solid. Some would have considered him a contrarian, but he was not irrational. About a month before he disappeared his daughter had died of breast cancer after a long illness. He was saddened by that, as were all of us.
We considered all of these factors while searching for answers to his disappearance.
Did he lose his balance and fall, injuring himself? Did he have another stroke, either fatal or debilitating? Was he depressed enough to commit suicide? Did he merely get confused and wander off? Or was his health not a factor at all...
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