A 75-year-old man named George Deshong has gone missing near the 7700 block of Northwest 87th Avenue in Tamarac, and deputies are asking anyone with information about his whereabouts to come forward. He was last seen in the Woodmont community in western Tamarac, a neighborhood of single-family homes threaded with artificial lakes.
The Broward Sheriff
announced the search Monday evening, describing itself as one of the country's largest sheriff's offices and asking the public to help locate Deshong. The agency is led by Sheriff Gregory Tony and is based in Broward County. Anyone with information has been asked to call 954-321-4268.
Woodmont's Canals Add Urgency to the Search
The neighborhood around NW 87th Avenue sits inside Woodmont, a master-planned residential golf course community surrounded by subdivisions and nearby artificial lakes, according to Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Realty. Tamarac as a whole contains more than 500 acres of freshwater canals and lakes woven into its residential areas, per the City of Tamarac, a feature of many South Florida master-planned communities that can create localized hazards during searches for missing seniors.
Because Tamarac does not run its own police department, the search is being handled by the Broward Sheriff's Office under a five-year policing agreement with the city that runs through September 2030, according to Tamarac Talk. That contract assigns 110 total personnel to the Tamarac District. In August, the Tamarac City Commission approved an amendment reallocating six community service aide positions into two patrol sergeants to boost direct field supervision across shifts, per Citizen Portal.
A City Built Around an Aging Population
Tamarac's demographics help explain why missing senior cases carry particular weight in the city. U.S. Census Bureau data shows 25.9% of Tamarac residents are 65 or older, with a median age of 47.5 years, reflecting the city's roots as a bedroom community for retirees since its 1963 incorporation. Statewide, the Florida Department of Elder Affairs reported in 2025 that roughly 580,000 Floridians 65 and older live with Alzheimer's disease, giving Florida the second-highest Alzheimer's prevalence rate in the nation.
It remains unknown whether state or local Silver Alert criteria have been activated in Deshong's case. Under the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Silver Alert Plan, local agencies can issue a Silver Alert for a missing person 60 or older with a verified cognitive impairment, such as dementia or Alzheimer's, who poses a credible threat to their own safety. A Silver Alert activation would typically trigger dynamic highway message signs if Deshong is believed to be traveling in a vehicle, though that determination has not been disclosed.
Standard Protocol for Missing Vulnerable Adults
FDLE protocols require local agencies investigating missing endangered adults to enter the person into the Florida Crime Information Center database and issue a regional Be On the Lookout broadcast to neighboring jurisdictions, ensuring visibility across law enforcement statewide. BSO's Missing Persons Unit, which coordinates these investigations centrally out of its Fort Lauderdale headquarters, is asking anyone with information on Deshong's whereabouts to call Detective Chris Blankenship at 954-321-4268 or the BSO non-emergency dispatch line at 954-764-4357.
BSO also runs a Citizen Observer Patrol program in the Tamarac District, deploying trained volunteers in marked vehicles to assist deputies with neighborhood observation and wellness checks on homebound seniors, who report suspicious conditions directly to BSO dispatch. Searches for vulnerable adults have become a recurring concern across Broward's contract cities; last month, Hoodline reported on a similarly urgent search for a 60-year-old missing with dementia in neighboring Lauderdale Lakes.
