Austin family searches for 75-year-old veteran with dementia

AUSTIN, Texas - A 75-year-old man with dementia has been missing from a North Austin memory care facility for more than one week. 

Paull Patterson left the Colonial Gardens Memory Care Facility around 4 p.m. on Nov. 6, according to his daughter Laurel Patterson. 

"He just walked out the front door," she said. 

Laurel Patterson said the facility called Austin police around 11 p.m. on Nov. 6. They contacted her around 1:30 a.m. on Nov. 7. 

"Which is quite a bit of time to give someone who is pretty mobile a head start," she said. 

Patterson is 6’0 and 190 pounds. He has brown eyes, a white beard, gray hair and is balding. He left the facility in a brown leather jacket, blue collared shirt, brown slippers and a black Coast Guard hat — his daughter said he is a proud veteran. 

She moved him to Austin, where she resides, from New Mexico after realizing he needed around the clock care. She thinks her father currently believes he is in New Mexico. 

"There’s a slight fear because he doesn't know he's in Austin that he may say to somebody, ‘hey, I'm trying to get back to my house…’ And that maybe he's got in a car with somebody. Maybe he's on a bus going there," said his sister Rebecca Clinger. 

Clinger flew in from England to assist with search efforts. 

Laurel Patterson is asking anyone who spots her father stay with him and contact her at 505-235-6492. 

She said he responds to his childhood nickname "Pepper" — a play on his initials. He is friendly and "loves food." 

The family is starting a GoFundMe to create a reward fund for tips that lead to Paull Patterson’s recovery. 

He disappeared from Colonial Gardens once previously. He also went missing while living in New Mexico. Both times he was located within 24 hours.