A 75-year-old South Baltimore man who vanished from the 3000 block of South Hanover Street has been found safe and unharmed, according to Baltimore Police. Donald Humphries was last seen in the area on Friday, wearing a blue tracksuit and brown shoes, before officers classified him as a missing vulnerable adult and appealed to the public for help finding him.
The update came Sunday morning, when Baltimore Police posted on its official X account that Humphries had been located safe and unharmed, thanking everyone who had shared the original missing-person alert. The department had described Humphries as 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighing 155 pounds, and had urged anyone with information about his whereabouts to contact its Missing Persons Unit at 410-361-9929 or call 911.
Missing Vulnerable Adult: Help police locate missing 75-Year-Old Donald Humphries (5’10; 155lbs).
— Baltimore Police (@BaltimorePolice) August 15, 2026
He was last seen on August 14, 2026, in the 3000 block of S. Hanover St. wearing a blue tracksuit & brown shoes.
Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of Donald… pic.twitter.com/fXABoDLVXg
The stretch of South Hanover Street where Humphries went missing sits in South Baltimore along the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River, near MedStar Harbor Hospital and Middle Branch Park, according to CBS News Baltimore. The area's proximity to the waterfront and a major medical campus adds urgency to any search for a vulnerable adult who wanders from home.
Why Police Move Fast on Vulnerable Adult Cases
Baltimore Police did not disclose whether Humphries has a cognitive impairment, but department protocol treats disappearances like his as emergencies regardless of the circumstances. Under Baltimore Police Department Policy 714, officers must classify people with diminished mental capacity or life-threatening medical conditions as missing immediately, whether or not the disappearance appears voluntary, and file an official Maryland Missing Person Report, per PowerDMS. The department's Missing Persons Unit also handles mandatory notifications into the FBI's National Crime Information Center database, according to the same source.
There is also no mandatory waiting period before Maryland families or caregivers can report someone missing, dispelling a common misconception that police require 24 hours to pass first, according to the Aberdeen Police Department. Immediate reporting matters most in cases involving older adults, since research published by the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law indicates more than 60 percent of people living with Alzheimer's disease or dementia will wander at least once during their illness, creating serious risks of injury, falls, or environmental exposure.
A City With One of the Nation's Highest Alzheimer's Rates
Baltimore City has one of the highest Alzheimer's disease prevalence rates in the country, with 16.6% of residents 65 and older living with the condition as of 2024, well above Maryland's statewide average of 12.9%, according to Simpson Law. That demographic reality places a disproportionate burden on local police and emergency services, who frequently respond to reports of missing seniors across the city.
State law gives Maryland police several tools to respond quickly. The Silver Alert Program, established under Maryland Public Safety Code § 3-604, directs the Department of State Police to rapidly broadcast public warnings through highway signs and media outlets when a missing person has a cognitive impairment that threatens their health and safety, per Simpson Law. Maryland also created the Purple Alert Program under Public Safety Code § 3-608 to cover missing adults with intellectual, developmental, or cognitive disabilities who don't meet traditional Silver Alert criteria, according to Westlaw.
Behind both alert systems is the Maryland Center for Missing and Unidentified Persons, created under state Family Law in 1985 as a unit of the Maryland Department of State Police. The center serves as the central clearinghouse coordinating missing persons cases statewide, issuing public alerts and logging data into national databases, according to the Maryland Department of State Police. Nationally, more than 600,000 people are reported missing across the United States every year, according to Department of Justice data cited by the Aberdeen Police Department.
In Humphries' case, that network of alerts, protocols, and public sharing appears to have worked as intended. Baltimore Police confirmed he was found safe and unharmed, closing out a search that began with an urgent public appeal just two days earlier.
