Missing S.D. Navy Doctor Arrested in South Carolina
A doctor at the Navy Hospital in San Diego was arrested here Thursday and charged with deserting the Navy.
Lt. Cmdr. Joanne Landacre, 33, of Irmo, S.C., was working at the Richland Memorial Hospital in Columbia when she was arrested. She was charged with desertion and flown to a Navy base in Jacksonville, Fla., Thursday night.
Landacre reportedly disappeared from the hospital in Balboa Park on June 25, Petty Officer D.A. Roberts said from the Absentee Collection Center in San Diego.
Detectives from the Richland County Sheriff’s Department in South Carolina received word from the Navy Thursday morning that Landacre was believed to be working at the hospital, Inspector Allen Sloan said.
Detectives went to Richland Hospital and “found her performing duties in the emergency room as a doctor,” Sloan said.
Hospital officials could not be reached for comment Thursday, but spokesman Steve Burke said, “To my knowledge she has been working in our emergency room.”
Navy officials do not actively seek missing officers until they have been gone 30 days, Roberts said. They are then officially regarded as deserters and their names are added to the FBI’s national missing-persons list, he said.
Since Landacre had not been missing for 30 days, Roberts said Navy officials probably received a tip about her whereabouts.
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