Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Retiree missing since Tuesday

The missing woman might be disoriented after a recent move to a retirement home.

By Times Staff Writer
Published February 29, 2008

ADVERTISEMENT [Handout] Mary Gill Zelter, 86, signed out of the Royal Palms assisted living facility in Largo about 1 p.m. Tuesday and drove off in her white Chrysler Sebring convertible.

Police from Pinellas to Sarasota County continued to watch Thursday for a woman last seen leaving her retirement home Tuesday afternoon.

Mary Gill Zelter, 86, signed out of the Royal Palms assisted living facility in Largo about 1 p.m. Tuesday and drove off in her white Chrysler Sebring convertible.

Zelter's credit card was used to make a purchase at an Albertsons grocery store at East Bay Drive and Belcher Road about 1:30 p.m., Largo police said.

She has not been seen, and her card had not been used since, according to police and her daughter.

Zelter, who suffers from dementia and high blood pressure, left Royal Palms without her prescribed medications. While police said she is not in danger from not taking her medicine, they are concerned that because of her dementia she could become lost, hurt herself or suffer from exposure to cold weather.

"We're beside ourselves," Zelter's daughter, 54-year-old Mary Lalucci of Belleair, said Thursday. She fears that this might not be a case of an older adult wandering away but that someone might have harmed her mother.

"As of Tuesday night, when it got dark, she would have reached out for help," she said.

Although Zelter has dementia, she can get around on her own, was allowed to sign herself out of Royal Palms and recently had improved enough to make other short trips to the store in the past month, Lalucci said.

Zelter, a retired registered nurse and travel agent, has lived at Royal Palms about four months. Before that, she lived in Venice in Sarasota County.

Law officials put out a missing persons bulletin for Zelter for Pinellas and surrounding areas, including Venice. Lalucci said it's possible that she might try to return to her old home town.

"The Venice police and her old neighbors are all on the lookout," she said.

How to help

Have you seen this woman?

Mary Gill Zelter, 86, is about 5 feet 3, has a thin build and white hair. Her car is a 2003 Chrysler Sebring convertible, white with a black top, and it has a Florida tag, CZ 103. Police ask anyone who sees her or has information about her to call (727) 587-6728 or 587-6730.

[Last modified February 28, 2008, 22:05:22]