Search Continues for Alzheimer’s Victim

Relatives of a man with Alzheimer’s disease Monday renewed their plea for help in finding the Washington resident, who disappeared more than two weeks ago while staying with a son in Lakewood.

Rosemary Banagas said her father, Gregory Hernandez, 69, of Tacoma, disappeared the morning of Aug. 11. He had arrived the night before for a weekend visit, she said, adding that six of Hernandez’s nine children live in the Los Angeles area.

“He lives pretty much in the past. He’s polite but he doesn’t know us,” Banagas said. “He didn’t have any money or anything, or a jacket.”

The family has been scouring the neighborhood daily in their search for Hernandez, she said.

“We’ve been putting posters all over the place that say ‘Grandpa’s Missing,’ and his grandchildren have also been driving around,” she said.

“We go to the parks at night, and we look behind markets because he likes to collect things. We imagine that’s how he’s surviving, because he hasn’t been in the hospitals or jails or anything.”

Banagas said Hernandez was wearing black polyester pants, a beige shirt with mint green and peach stripes and black dress shoes. He has a gray beard down to his chest, and black hair peppered with gray.

Anyone with information about Hernandez is asked to call the Lakewood Sheriff’s Station.