Alzheimer Victim, 62, Found in Canyon

The search for a 62-year-old man who failed to return Thursday from his daily walk ended Friday when he was found dehydrated and exhausted after spending the night in a canyon near his Clairemont home.

Walton Barrett, in whom Alzheimer’s disease was diagnosed about two years ago, apparently fell to the floor of a canyon near his home on Mt. Alifan Drive, San Diego police spokesman Bill Robinson said.

Officer Brad Elow and Beau, a German shepherd from the police canine unit, found Barrett conscious and entangled in bushes about 24 hours after he was reported missing.

Bartett was lifted from the canyon by a police helicopter and taken to Sharp Memorial Hospital, where he was listed in fair condition, a hospital spokesman said.

The search began at about 12:30 p.m. Thursday after Barrett failed to return from his daily midmorning walk, Barrett family friend Carol Eller said. Barrett usually walks around the Clairemont neighborhood in the afternoon when his wife is at home but left Thursday while she was grocery shopping, Eller said.

When Mary Lou Barrett returned home at noon, she called police and told them that her husband was missing.

Thursday and Friday, about 12 police officers along with dozens of friends and neighbors searched the canyons and shopping centers of the Clairemont neighborhood where Barrett lives with his wife. Members of a local Alzheimer’s support group manned the phones at the Barrett home and took several calls from people who said they thought they had seen Walton Barrett.