Police have released new photos of a missing elderly man taken just one day before he disappeared from his home in Whitby.
James Pearson was last seen at his apartment near Brock and Burns streets on Jan. 13.
His family told police that the 89-year-old often walks to where he needs to go and is familiar with McDonald’s locations in the area, including one on Brock Street where Pearson was possibly spotted on Jan. 14.
Police say they’re concerned Pearson is lost and “having trouble making his way back home.”
They describe him as a white male with grey hair, approximately five-foot-five and 110 pounds. He was last seen wearing a red, white and blue “New York Giants’ toque, running shoes and a heavy navy blue, down-filled coat that sits at his knees. It’s also possible he was wearing tinted glasses and track pants when he was last seen.
A set of new photos of Pearson was released Thursday in hopes of triggering new information about his whereabouts.
One of Pearson’s granddaughters has made numerous pleas for help finding him on Twitter.
“I don’t even think I can sleep tonight. I keep checking my phone hoping that someone has seen him,” Bri Pearson wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. “It’s so cold out and I’m very worried. Just want to know my grandpa is safe.”
The granddaughter went on to say that her grandfather, also known as “Jim,” is familiar with using GO Transit and may have taken a train to the Toronto area.
She said Pearson is also known to visit the Harvey’s on Consumers Drive, the Whitby Library on Dundas Street, a Scotiabank on Highway 2, Union Station’s York Concourse and the Eaton Centre.
Pearson has not been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s but suffers from “very extreme loss of memory,” she added.
Metrolinx spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins has also been vocal on Twitter about Pearson’s disappearance, assuring his family that she’s circulated his photo to GO Transit officers, who are “keeping an eye out.”
