WEST OLIVE, MI (WHTC-AM/FM) – The case of an elderly Barry County couple reported missing over Christmas is not uncommon to law enforcement.
James and Dora Boulter didn’t return to their Orangeville Township home just east of the Allegan County line after leaving a friend’s house. They had been last seen in Plainwell, which is on a direct line to their home, but when an Oceana County resident spotted them more than a day later, the couple were around 100 miles out of their way.
Ottawa County Sheriff Steve Kempker says that such a call of missing parents and grandparents isn’t all that unusual. “They may be elderly, or there may be some dementia setting in,” he said during his monthly appearance in “WHTC Talk of the Town” on Friday. “That brings a concern to us, especially if this person doesn’t have a cell phone that can be tracked.
“It’s a very simple thing of making a wrong turn, or they leave somewhere, and we have found people locally, we have found people hundreds of miles away, we have found people thousands of miles away.”
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson has a web page devoted to addressing concerns about seniors and their driving privleges.
Barry County authorities didn’t immediately dislose the exact circumstances that led to the Boulter’s disappearance.
