PRESCOTT, AZ — The 911 call came into the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office while it was still dark on a January morning in 2023.
The caller was driving toward Prescott when he spotted a gray-haired man, sitting on the side of the road. He had no shoes on. Temperatures were near freezing. The caller bundled him into the cab of a pickup truck to warm up.
The man was Richard Garcia, a 91-year-old Army veteran.
A report by the Arizona Department of Health Services would later reveal he walked out of an assisted-living home through a back door. The door had an alarm. But it’s unclear whether the alarm went off to alert staff.
He was found about a half mile away.
He didn’t remember his address. But he wore a hospital bracelet after recently being discharged, and paramedics responding to the 911 call remembered him.
Body camera video shows a sheriff’s deputy going to the assisted-living home where Richard lives.
It’s still dark outside.
“We got Richard Garia,” the deputy tells a worker who opens the door.
“Did he call?” she says.
“He was out walking down street,” the deputy says.
“What?” she says, seemingly shocked and unaware he was gone.
Richard suffered frostbite to both feet, requiring weeks of medical treatment, according to a lawsuit later filed by his family against the care home.
The ABC15 Investigators found Richard’s story by going through records as part of its ongoing investigation into seniors wandering away unnoticed from care facilities and sometimes dying or suffering injuries in extreme temperatures.
ABC15 has spent more than a year reporting on these cases, often called “elopements,” and has identified more than a dozen such cases since 2017. Since ABC15 began reporting on these elopements, new state safety standards now require staff at assisted-living facilities to conduct twice-yearly “elopement drills.” Facilities must also report any elopements within 24 hours to the state Department of Health Services.
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Many of the elopements happen during Arizona’s dangerous heat season. But it’s also happening in the cold, as Richard’s case illustrates.
“It's horrible on the family,” said Sean Phelan, an attorney who represents the Garcia family. “Because they've done all they can to place their loved one in the trust of another, and it is a massive violation of that trust.”
Phelan shared the body camera video of Richard’s rescue with ABC15.
Richard had previously been diagnosed with dementia and could no longer live on his own. His family moved him into an assisted-living home in December 2022. He was there less than a month when he wandered away, and the Good Samaritan found him at the side of the road that January morning.
“He almost died out there,” his son, Jon Garcia, told ABC15 in an interview.
He said his father was never the same.
“He used to watch sports a lot. That was his big hobby. After the incident, basically, he lost all interest in just about everything,” Jon Garcia said.
Records show the state Department of Health Services cited the assisted-living home for safety violations. The worker on duty that night was also disciplined by Adult Protective Services, the state agency that investigates allegations of abuse, exploitation and neglect.
The home has since changed ownership. Richard’s family later settled a lawsuit against the facility for an undisclosed amount.
“My only goal in this whole thing was just to make sure that it doesn't happen to someone else's dad or mom or sister or child,” Jon Garia said.
Richard lived another two years, dying in June of this year of natural causes.
“He did get his justice, I think, in this case before he passed,” Jon Garcia said.
Email ABC15 Investigator Anne Ryman at: anne.ryman@abc15.com, call her at 602-685-6345, or connect on X, formerly known as Twitter, and Facebook.
