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How man reached roof still a mystery

Police continue to scrutinize the sequence leading to a 90-year-old Alzheimer's patient being found dead Tuesday.

By VANESSA DE LA TORRE and JOSE CARDENAS
Published August 31, 2006

CLEARWATER - Alzheimer's patient Leo Wood may have climbed to the roof of the Highland Terrace Retirement Center the same night he was reported missing from a neighboring nursing home.

But did he? That night, the door to the roof was unlocked. Police were still investigating.

"Maybe he could have gone up there on the 15th or the 16th," Clearwater police Sgt. Greg Stewart said Wednesday. "There's no answer to that question."

Wood, 90, disappeared from the Highland Pines Nursing Home on Aug. 15. In a bizarre turn, his body was found Tuesday morning atop the seven-story Highland Terrace.

The door to the roof was closed only with wire from July 27 to Aug. 16, Stewart said.

It couldn't be locked because firefighters responding to a minor sofa-bed fire at Highland Terrace in July broke the lock to get roof access.

The lock was replaced Aug. 16. That day, a sheriff's helicopter flew over the roof at least once searching for the missing man. Highland Terrace employees also checked the roof Aug. 15, 16 and 17, Stewart said.

If Wood managed to climb to the roof Aug. 15, then no one saw him in the following days.

"It could be because they didn't do a good search; he was hiding under the air conditioning units," said Stewart. Or, he added: "It could be because he wasn't there."

On Wednesday, Wood's family was too upset to talk about what happened. His children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren had walked miles looking for him, along railroad tracks and creeks for two weeks.

He could barely walk; how far could he have gone?

They were still searching when told Tuesday that his decomposed body was found. The door to the roof was locked when a maintenance worker found him at 11:30 a.m.

Among the mysteries now is how the 90-year-old made it to the roof, if he was capable of climbing stairs. Stewart said it was possible Wood used the building's elevator, and the stairwell some of the way.

The stairwell doors on every floor are always kept unlocked because the stairs serve as a fire escape.

Bill Pellan, of the Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner's Office, said the investigation into the cause of death was pending and that it could be several weeks before the cause was determined.

[Last modified August 31, 2006, 01:15:01]