Missing Bend man, 82, found across town

As two-dozen Deschutes County sheriff’s Search and Rescue volunteers fanned out to search for a missing elderly man with dementia on Bend’s Westside, a citizen found him walking along a busy southeast Bend street — four miles away — thought he needed help and contacted police.

It was the second such search and successful resolution in the city in three days..

Police Sgt. Nick Parker said around 3 p.m. they were actively looking for James (Jim) Kerfoot, 82, last seen in the early afternoon at 1511 NW West Hills Avenue.

Sgt. Brian Beekman said Kerfoot’s wife had left their home in the late morning and returned to find him gone early in the afternoon. By the time police were contacted, he could have been gone for some three hours, he said.

Kerfoot, who has dementia, was believed to be on foot, without a wallet or cellphone, Parker said. He was described as 5-foot-8 and 155 pounds, with short gray hair, and last was seen wearing a rust-colored flannel shirt and khaki pants.

Sgt. Brian Beekman said while 25 SAR volunteers were searching the immediate neighborhood,.at the south end of Awbrey Butte, a woman driving in the area of SE Ninth Street and Reed Market Road stopped to check on an elderly man walking on the road who appeared to need help.

“She stops, figures something is not quite right,” and gives Kerfoot a lift, eventually learning his name and phone number and calling it and police.

The woman took Kerfoot to the police headquarters near Pilot Butte and they gave him a ride home.

Beekman said it was possible Kerfoot got a ride, but added that SAR reports many elderly who wander away from home can walk a long way before being found.