Woman Found Alive After Missing for 42 Years

blue question mark on the face of a woman's face

A woman found alive after missing for 42 years was rediscovered in a nursing home.

In 1975, 36-year-old Flora Stevens, an employee at the Concord resort in the Catskill mountains of New York, was dropped off at a hospital in Monticello by her husband for a doctor’s appointment. When he came back to retrieve her, she was nowhere to be found.

With no leads or any evidence found, the case remained unsolved. It was as if she had vanished without a trace. Every now and again, police would bring her case back to the light and attempt to find clues, but they always came up with nothing. That is, until now.

Woman Found Alive, But Case Still Raises Questions

After looking into a separate cold case file in September, a sheriff’s detective unearthed information about a person using Stevens’ social security number at an assisted-living facility in Lowell Massachusetts, just outside of Boston. Employees at the residence confirmed that they had had a resident named Flora Harris under that number ever since 2001.

Last Tuesday, the detective and one of his colleagues visited the facility. In doing so, they confirmed that yes, this was Flora Stevens (now Harris), aged 78 years old at the time of her rediscovery.

Flora’s husband unfortunately passed away in 1985, and as far authorities can tell, she has no living relatives. Medical records indicate that the woman found alive also resided in nursing homes in both New Hampshire and New York City. Flora was also diagnosed with dementia, because of which officials have regrettably been unable to determine information on what may have happened to her from 1975 until her recent reemergence. However, Flora did recognize herself in her employee ID photo that the detective had brought along to show her in Lowell.

Although what happened to Flora on that day 42 years ago and all that is in between remains a mystery, it’s cases like this that have a positive impact, says the police.

“It’s not too often we get to solve a 42-year-old missing-person case,” Sheriff Mike Schiff stated.

Image Source: Pixabay

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Alan O’Leary

Alan is a happily-married, New York-based writer with over 5 years of experience in journalism. He mainly focuses on subjects such as international politics, arts culture, social media and national news.