Man Found Dead in Desert After Abandoning Car : Search: Alvin Noel, 75, had been heading toward Lancaster after dropping off his son near Pasadena when he was reported missing.

A 75-year-old Lancaster man, who reportedly suffered from the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s disease, was found dead in the San Bernardino County desert Thursday, ending a six-day search that began when he disappeared after driving his son to Pasadena.

The body of Alvin Noel was discovered about 10:30 a.m. in El Mirage Dry Lake, about 12 miles northwest of Victorville and a mile east of the Los Angeles County line, San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies said.

Noel apparently died of exposure after wandering about seven miles from his abandoned car, authorities said. They concluded that no foul play was involved.

“He appeared to have been dead three to four days,” said Sgt. John Hall of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Station in Lancaster. It is believed that he died before Monday’s heavy rainstorms, Hall said.

Noel had been missing since last Friday, when he dropped off his son at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Pasadena and started toward his Lancaster house, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said.

Noel headed north on the Angeles Crest Highway, the most direct route through the mountains to Lancaster, deputies said.

But Noel, who deputies said suffered from the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, never arrived. Alerted by family members, Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigators began looking for him over the weekend, deputies said.

Investigators believe that Noel became disoriented in the Antelope Valley and ended up driving eastward into San Bernardino County, where he abandoned his 1987 Oldsmobile on the dry lake bed in the desert.

The car was found Tuesday by federal Bureau of Land Management employees. A 50-square- mile area of desert around the discovery site was combed by at least 50 searchers from the San Bernardino and Los Angeles County sheriff’s departments, the California Highway Patrol, the Bureau of Land Management and numerous volunteers.

The car had been partially stripped. But the stripping apparently took place after it was abandoned, authorities said.