A 66-year-old Long Beach woman who disappeared from her residential care facility without the medication she needed has been found safe. Cynthia Gerardi was reported missing after she was last seen leaving the facility on the 200 block of West Wardlow Road around 9:30 a.m. on Oct. 31, and police say she turned up unharmed two days later in Torrance.
The missing-person notice appeared in Random Lengths News. MyNewsLA.com reported that Gerardi “was located safe and unharmed in the City of Torrance” on Nov. 2, attributing the statement to the Long Beach Police Department. Before she was found, the Long Beach Police Department had asked for the public’s help locating her, describing her as an at-risk missing person who may have needed her life-saving medication, which she did not have with her when she left the facility.
As reported by MyNewsLA.com, the case was handled as an urgent search given Gerardi’s medical need. Police released no other details about how or where she was ultimately located.
A Familiar Address for Long Beach Care Facility Cases
Gerardi’s disappearance from the 200 block of West Wardlow Road echoes another case from earlier this year. In May, 73-year-old Joe Ann Favors was reported missing after walking away from a residential care facility on that same block, according to KTLA. Favors was considered at-risk and was said to suffer from medical conditions that could cause disorientation, and she also needed a mobility walker, the station reported.
Favors was found more than a month later. Police confirmed on June 23 that she had been located safe and unharmed in Santa Monica, but the circumstances surrounding her discovery, including the condition in which she was found, were not released, per the same KTLA report.
Gerardi’s case resolved far more quickly, with police confirming she was safe within two days of her disappearance. As with the Favors case, authorities have not released specifics on how she was found or what happened once she left the facility in Long Beach.
