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Elderly man wanders off, found dead

By ALEX LEARY
Published January 9, 2006

PINELLAS PARK - An 84-year-old man suffering from dementia wandered away from his son's apartment early Monday and was later found dead in a retention ditch.

Pinellas Park police officers found Luther C. Wilson shortly before 7 a.m.

"We don't know if he couldn't get back or couldn't remember or what," said his son, Darrell Wilson, 58, who called police after noticing his father was missing. He was last seen about 3 a.m. by Wilson's wife.

Wilson said he had gone to South Carolina last week to get his father, so he could find him better care at an assisted living facility in Largo. For a short time, his father was to stay at his Gateway Villas apartment at 2901 Gandy Blvd.

The ditch, on the east side of the property, was 10 feet deep and had two feet of water, police said.

Luther Wilson was a retired engineer for Owens Corning in Anderson, S.C., his son said. He served in the Navy during World War II and the Korean War.

His wife, Juanita, was to join him in a few weeks.

"It's horrible," his son said. "This was just a freak accident."

[Last modified January 9, 2006, 19:37:16]