Seattle police are searching for Bobbie Berkowitz, a 76-year-old woman with advanced dementia who was last seen early Tuesday walking south on Terry Avenue from 900 University Street, possibly heading toward 1900 Alaskan Way on the downtown waterfront. She is described as 5 feet 5 inches tall, thin, with white hair, and was wearing a green and white checkered shirt, blue jeans, and sneakers when she disappeared.
The Seattle Police Department shared the appeal on social media just after 8 p.m. Pacific time Monday, asking anyone who spots her to call 911 immediately. According to the Seattle Police Department, the route she may have taken would carry her nearly a mile downhill from First Hill through downtown Seattle toward Elliott Bay. The address where she was last seen, 900 University Street, is the site of Horizon House, a 90-bed nonprofit continuing care community that offers independent living, assisted living, and memory care, according to LeadingAge WA.
A Trailblazer in Seattle Public Health
Berkowitz is not just any missing senior in a city that has seen a string of dementia-related disappearances this summer. She is a nationally recognized figure in public health and nursing, having served as Deputy Secretary of the Washington State Department of Health from 1993 to 1997, per the Washington State Nurses Association. Earlier in her career she led nursing services for the Seattle-King County Department of Public Health from 1986 to 1993 and was later elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2001.
She went on to serve as Dean of Columbia University School of Nursing from 2010 to 2018 before returning to Seattle, and was named a Living Legend by the American Academy of Nursing in 2020, the organization's highest honor, according to Columbia's nursing school. She had also served as President of the American Academy of Nursing from 2014 to 2016. In January 2019, Swedish Health Services named her to its Board of Trustees in Seattle, a role tied to the hospital system's flagship campus on First Hill, not far from where she went missing this week.
The Reported Route Toward the Waterfront
The address police cited as her possible destination, 1900 Alaskan Way, corresponds to Waterfront Landings, a residential condo complex along Elliott Bay near the Seattle Aquarium, according to the Seattle Condo Group. That would mean a descent of roughly a mile down steep downtown terrain from Horizon House on First Hill, a route that would take her through some of Seattle's busiest streets.
Washington's Silver Alert law, adopted under RCW 13.60.010 in 2015, allows the Washington State Patrol to broadcast public alerts through highway signage, media, and social channels for missing adults 60 or older who have dementia or cognitive impairment, according to the Washington State Legislature. Lawmakers built the alert system around stark findings: roughly 60 percent of people with dementia will wander at least once in their lives, and up to half of those who remain missing more than 24 hours suffer severe injury or death.
Why Police Moved Immediately
Seattle Police Department policy allows officers to waive any mandatory waiting period before filing a missing person report or issuing digital bulletins whenever a vulnerable adult is involved, which is why authorities moved to publicize Berkowitz's case within hours rather than waiting for a standard reporting window, per the department's policy manual. That urgency reflects the broader scale of dementia in the region — an estimated 10.8 percent of King County residents 65 and older, or roughly 33,500 people, live with Alzheimer's disease or dementia, according to 2023 Alzheimer's Association estimates cited in earlier Hoodline reporting, ranking the county fourth among Washington's 39 counties for senior prevalence of the disease.
Berkowitz's disappearance follows a pattern of similar cases across the region this summer, including an 86-year-old woman near Capitol Hill and a 66-year-old walking toward Federal Way from SeaTac. Not every case has ended in tragedy — a 72-year-old Burien man reported missing in early August was later found safely, and his Silver Alert was canceled. Police have not released additional details about the circumstances of Berkowitz's disappearance beyond the described clothing, physical description, and possible route, and anyone with information is asked to call 911.
