Wickliffe police are asking for the public's help finding Shirley Neal, a 72-year-old woman with dementia who went missing Wednesday night from a care facility on Bishop Road. Neal has COPD and a history of seizures and strokes, and she is unable to speak in full sentences, making the search especially urgent for officers who say they are very concerned for her safety.
Neal was last seen around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday at the care facility on Bishop Road, according to News 5 Cleveland. She had removed a monitored device before she disappeared, the station reported. She is described as 5 feet 7 inches tall, weighing 165 pounds, with gray hair and brown eyes, and was last seen wearing a pink shirt, blue pants, and white tennis shoes.
A Busy Roadway Complicates the Search
Bishop Road is a major commercial and transit corridor linking Interstate 90 and Euclid Avenue, marked by multiple lanes of heavy traffic, according to a 2021 report from the City of Willoughby. That same report notes that thoroughfares near I-90 in the area see dozens of traffic accidents every year, a factor that tends to prompt heightened police sweeps whenever a missing pedestrian is reported nearby. Local departments in the region often coordinate through the Lake Crash Reconstruction Unit when major roadside incidents occur.
The scale of institutional properties along Wickliffe's corridors adds another layer of difficulty to any search. The city's grounds have historically hosted large regional gatherings — Hoodline previously reported on The FEST's move to Avon, noting the multi-acre institutional parcels common in the area, which can present distinct challenges when someone wanders off from a nearby facility.
Why Wandering Poses Such Serious Risk
Wandering is common among people with dementia — six in 10 will do so at least once, and many repeatedly, according to the Alzheimer's Association. It can happen at any stage of the disease and is often triggered by confusion, restlessness, or disorientation. Clinical emergency research from the MedicAlert Foundation indicates that when someone with dementia becomes lost, the risk of serious injury or death rises sharply if they aren't found within a few hours — a danger compounded in Neal's case by pre-existing conditions like COPD and a history of strokes.
Ohio has a formal mechanism for exactly this kind of case. Under the Ohio Revised Code, police can request an Endangered Missing Adult Alert through the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation when someone 65 or older, or a person with a mental impairment, disappears under circumstances that pose a credible threat of immediate danger, according to the Ohio Association of Broadcasters. Once issued, those alerts are broadcast through regional media, electronic road signs, and law enforcement networks. Separately, the Ohio Attorney General's office requires investigating departments to submit missing adult details to LEADS and the National Crime Information Center for immediate statewide broadcast, a process that automatically notifies adjacent county sheriffs and state highway patrol posts.
A System With a Strong Track Record
The state's alert program has a notably high success rate. In 2022, Ohio BCI issued 146 Endangered Missing Adult Alerts across 38 counties, and all but one of those missing individuals were safely located or returned home, per the Ohio Attorney General's office. Hoodline has covered similar cases in recent months, including statewide alerts issued last September for a missing man with dementia in Cincinnati and for Jamie Triplett in Stark County, both of which relied heavily on public tips and local media coverage to generate leads. Earlier this week, Hoodline also reported on the search for a 71-year-old woman with dementia who wandered barefoot from a Hamilton facility.
Neal went missing from a care facility in a region that has seen significant ownership changes recently. Hoodline reported in February that a New York investment firm operating under Meadow Falls Opco LLC acquired several Northeast Ohio senior-living and memory-care campuses in early 2026, including properties in Wickliffe and nearby Richmond Heights. It remains unclear how the facility where Neal was staying monitors residents considered at high risk of wandering, or how much time elapsed before police were notified of her disappearance.
Wickliffe police are asking anyone with information on Neal's location to call 911 immediately.
