The Centralia Police Department is still searching for a missing 93-year-old Centralia man after all of the tips they received produced no additional information for the investigation, according to Detective John Panco.
Robert S. Gerard, 93, went missing from his residence and was reportedly last seen on July 6 at about 6 p.m. at the intersection of West Reynolds Avenue and North Pearl Street, according to a Centralia Police Department press release.
He is six feet tall and weighs 185 pounds and was last seen wearing a white baseball cap, a brown jacket, blue jeans and using a gold-colored cane.
Gerard has dementia and recently started having seizures, according to the release.
Police received multiple tips from citizens on possible sightings of Gerard after they released a statement regarding his whereabouts, but those leads have yielded no useful details for the investigation, Panco said.
Police also conducted a grid search in the surrounding area of Gerard’s residence a day after he went missing that did not bring forth any relevant information either.
“All of the leads have come up with either ‘not him’ or places that we hoped had video of him but did not have video,” Panco said.
When asked if the investigation is back to square one, Panco replied, “a little bit.”
On Wednesday police worked on bolstering their social media efforts with hope that more people will be aware of Gerard and in turn lead to someone spotting him or bringing relevant information forward, Panco said.
“We’re relying on social media a lot and we’re relying on citizens continuing to say if they’ve seen anything,” Panco said.
Panco added that they also contacted law enforcement agencies up and down Interstate 5 and “basically throughout the state” as well as hospitals to be on the lookout for Gerard.
As of now, with no additional leads to guide the investigation, there aren’t any search parties for Gerard like the one on July 7 scheduled.
“We don’t know where we would grid search … unless we have another location to grid search, we don’t know where we would start,” Panco said. “That’s the thing with these searches, you have to have a beginning spot.”
If anyone sees Gerard or has additional information in regard to his whereabouts, the Centralia Police Department asks you to call the Lewis County Central Dispatch Center at 360-740-1105.
