Missing 78-Year-Old Man's Bag Found In Washington Heights

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — On Saturday night, Suryanarayan "Suri" Hegde, who suffers from dementia, told his family he was going to the store. Hedge has not returned to his Upper West Side home, though, and his family quickly put out the call to help find the 78-year-old.

On Sunday morning, a man in Washington Heights called Hegde's wife of 42 years Mary Healey, saying that he found his bag in front of 638 West 160th Street, between Riverside Drive and Fort Washington Avenue, the WestSideRag reported.

The bag had Healey's emergency contact number written in it, along with Hegde's iPhone and wallet, added the WestSideRag. The phone no longer being on Hegde's person means that the family can't use the "Find my iPhone" feature to track him down.

Hegde is an Indian man with a gray beard and gray hair standing at 5 feet, 5 inches tall, and weighing around 110 pounds.

His wife says he can usually remember the month and year of his birthday and sometimes remembers his address. She also added that while dementia has been tricky to navigate, Hegde loves to walk and has never gotten lost like this before — he usually takes a cab home when he walks too far from home, she told the Rag.

Anyone with information about his whereabouts is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).