Car of Missing Man, 81, Found at Crash Site
The car of an elderly Orange County man missing for almost three weeks has been found in a rural area of Riverside County, authorities said Monday.
Lt. Hector Rivera of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department said there was no sign of Clifford H. Swift, 81, of Laguna Hills, though his gray, two-tone Mercury Marquis was found crashed into a utility pole in Temecula.
The car was spotted by a jogger July 16 but was not reported to authorities until July 26, Rivera said.
Swift, described as 5 feet 10, 140 pounds and with gray hair, was last seen by his wife, Jean, 77, on July 16. She said he was dressed in a black sweater, gray shirt, dark-blue pants, black shoes and steel-rimmed glasses. Family members said Swift was headed to the Sears auto center in Laguna Hills to replace his car’s battery, but he never returned.
Anyone with information about Swift’s whereabouts is asked to call the Orange County sheriff’s missing persons detail at (714) 628-7170.
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