Woman Never Came Back From a Drive

It has been nine days since Doris Goodwin, 64, took the family car and went for a drive. It has been as many days filled with worries and anxiety for her family and husband, who pray but fear the worst.

Goodwin, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, has been missing since Oct. 22 when she left her brother-in-law’s Westminster home. The couple had traveled from Littleton, Colo., and had planned to stay for several weeks to help her brother-in-law who just underwent heart surgery.

“She’s never done anything like this before,” said her husband, Wallace Goodwin, 69, his voice trembling. “It’s been very difficult for me. I’m trying to keep occupied and stay close to the phone.”

Wallace Goodwin and his brother, Harold, returned from the grocery store about 3:30 p.m. Oct. 22 when they spotted Doris getting into her 1995 Chevrolet Corsica. Family members said she just picked up the keys and left with $100.

“She backed up, smiled and waved,” Wallace said. “We thought she was going to the grocery store, which she had talked about.”

But they haven’t seen Doris since.

She was spotted last week at a medical clinic in Riverside, which Westminster police checked on Tuesday. She asked clerks where she could buy a ticket to return to Grand Junction, Colo., where she has friends, said Gina Wolland, a Westminster police clerk who works on missing persons cases. Clinic clerks were concerned about the woman so they called police. But by the time authorities arrived, she had gone.

“We don’t have the slightest idea where she is,” Wallace said, adding that he and the family have called and visited hotels and motels in Riverside. “It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack.”

Doris is 5 feet 4 inches and weighs 105 pounds. She has gray hair and brown eyes. She was last seen driving a 1995 metallic gray Chevrolet Corsica, with the Colorado license plate number PCB5258.

Anyone with information is urged to call Westminster police at (714) 898-3315, Ext. 349.

“We’ve been together for 42 short years and I’d like to have 43, 44, 45, whatever,” Wallace said.