An 87-year-old Groveland man with dementia who vanished in his silver Nissan Rogue on Wednesday afternoon has been found safe roughly 40 miles from home in Orange County. Joseph J. Zdrodowski was last seen driving away from Groveland, Florida, and was spotted a day later traveling south on Alafaya Trail near Waterford Lakes, far from the western Lake County community where he lives.
The Lake County Sheriff's Office had been searching for Zdrodowski since he was reported missing Wednesday afternoon, according to WFTV. He was considered missing and endangered, and deputies asked anyone who spotted him or his vehicle, bearing Florida license plate CL84ZY, to contact the sheriff's office or local law enforcement. He was last seen wearing black cargo pants, a gray T-shirt, black shoes, and a NASA hat.
By Thursday, the sheriff's office announced that Zdrodowski had been safely located in Orange County, after his vehicle was spotted heading south near the busy Waterford Lakes shopping corridor. Groveland sits in western Lake County, about 27 miles west of Downtown Orlando, according to the City of Groveland, meaning Zdrodowski covered roughly 40 miles across county lines before he was found.
A Common but Dangerous Pattern for Dementia Patients
Cases like Zdrodowski's are far from rare. The Alzheimer's Association estimates that six out of 10 people living with Alzheimer's or another form of dementia will wander at least once during their illness, and wandering can occur even in familiar settings and at any stage of the disease. Florida carries an outsized share of that risk: the Florida Department of Elder Affairs estimated that about 580,000 Floridians aged 65 and older were living with Alzheimer's disease in 2025, giving the state the second-highest prevalence of the condition in the nation.
Research underscores why fast law enforcement response matters so much in these situations. A University of South Florida College of Nursing study on missing drivers with dementia found that police officers are significantly more likely than citizens or family members to discover missing impaired drivers, making rapid notification of law enforcement critical once someone goes missing.
How Florida's Alert Systems Work
Florida's Silver Alert program, created to help locate missing seniors, has been activated 3,000 times between its 2008 launch and October 2022, directly leading to the safe recovery of 286 missing senior citizens, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. To trigger a statewide alert, a missing person must be at least 60 years old, or between 18 and 59 without the capacity to consent, and must have verified irreversible intellectual deterioration while traveling in a vehicle with an identifiable license plate. Local law enforcement must first issue a local alert before a statewide Silver Alert can be requested.
When a statewide Silver Alert is activated for a missing driver, the Florida Department of Transportation keeps dynamic highway message signs active for a maximum of six hours, while local BOLO alerts from agencies like the sheriff's office remain in effect until the person is found. The sheriff's office coordinates these searches through Florida Crime Information Center entries, statewide BOLO alerts, and public bulletins tied to regional dispatch and Crimeline.
Florida also runs a separate Purple Alert system, launched in July 2022, for missing adults with intellectual, developmental or mental disabilities who don't meet the Silver Alert criteria. That program assisted in 250 recoveries during its first year, according to WTSP.
Zdrodowski's case marks the second time in recent memory that a Lake County search reached into Orlando, a reminder of how quickly an impaired driver can cross jurisdictional lines. Lake County authorities accept tips around the clock by phone and email as they continue to respond to missing endangered adult reports across the region.
