Let's Find Nancy for the New Year

With the year quickly coming to an end, my level of helplessness and frustration remains high as we still haven't had any clues that have led us to even the suggestion of a trail in the search for Nancy.  Despite our lack of success at this point, I am forever indebted to each and every one of you who have devoted your time, energy, talents and prayers to our efforts.  In those moments when I am not consumed by thoughts of "what should I do next," I am overwhelmed by the kindness and commitment of both treasured old friends and the many wonderful strangers who have become invaluable new friends.  There simply are no words that can adequately convey the gratitude that Nancy's parents and I feel.

As we enter 2017, we will continue to devise new strategies to continue to shake up the system in our ongoing effort to bring Nancy home.   A major new effort we will be undertaking after the 1st of the year will involve visits to a large number of skilled nursing and residential care facilities in Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura Counties.  If any of you have an interest in assisting with those calls, please let me know of your interest and availability.  We are also exploring other avenues of keeping the search alive and will be posting that information on an ongoing basis.

Please know how very much you and your efforts are appreciated and accept our best wishes for a New Year that provides health and happiness for you and your families and finding Nancy for ours.

Kirk

Weekly Update - and How You Can Help (Again)

Last week we finished up calling all the hospitals, Skilled Nursing Facilities (Nursing Homes) and the residential care facilities for which we received returned mail.  Thanks to Peg and her team for that!  (Over 1300 entries in the call log ... probably many more phone calls than that).

This week we'll concentrate on physically visiting some facilities.

As we have asked before, please share Nancy's information with anyone you know who may come in contact with hospitals, nursing homes or residential care facilities.  We have to push the word (and her picture!) out there (thanks Tavia for sharing your friend's efforts!)

It is also about time to "refresh" getting the word out.  So please

1. Share on FaceBook, 
2. Tweet "Missing Alzheimer's patient in LA. Missing for over 2 months.  NancyIsMissing.BlogSpot.com  #NancyIsMissing"
3. Post on NextDoor in your neighborhood.
4. Tell someone else you haven't told before!

Another week, and still looking for Nancy... Please help look in residential care facilities for her!

Another week, and still looking for Nancy. 

Last week we sent out five thousand flyers to all the residential care facilities recognized by CA's Dept of Social Services in Los Angeles, Orange, and Ventura counties.   This is part of our “bottom-up” strategy of finding Nancy if she has made it into the care system without being identified: We’re seeking her from the individual facilities.   Thanks, again, to all those who stamped and stuffed envelopes.

Got back 120 of these as undeliverable and are still culling them and following up.

Also bought a marketing list of all the MDs and RNs, in a 20 mile radius of the point from where Nancy went missing emailed flyers with Nancy photo, description, reward info, and tip line phone number.  Kudos to brother Rex Moody for identifying this opportunity.

And have been in contact with California’s Medi-Cal Data Analysts to look for women matching Nancy’s description that have applied for coverage from any source.  The time-delay from initial billing to showing up in data is remarkably long, but we are seeking help to find Nancy via this “top-down” strategy.

And, another “thank you” to Megan Barnes of the Daily Breeze newspaper for a very nice follow-up article on our continuing efforts to find Nancy!  This article is available at by clicking the following link: 

Link to Daily Breeze Update Article

And Megan's piece is also in The Beach Reporter this week...  Again, huge thanks, Megan!

Link to The Beach Reporter Update Article

We continue to believe that Nancy is still out there, receiving care in the “system” and hope that someone will recognize her from the flyer and call the tip line at: 310-567-6594

Update: Mass-mailing of flyers to residential care facilities in 3 counties...

We sent out 5,000 flyers on Tuesday to all of the Elder Residential Care facilities recognized by CA's Dept of Social Services in Los Angeles, Orange, and Ventura counties. Thanks to all who helped stamp and stuff the envelopes.

We're still hoping that Nancy is somehow lost in one of these facilities and that someone either working there or coming in contact there will recognize her and call us.

PLEASE CONTINUE TO SPREAD THE WORD TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW THAT MIGHT BE IN CARE FACILITIES!

And continuing kudos to Peg Griffith and her team of callers: They continue their follow-up calls to a large number of area hospitals on a regular basis. You are amazing...

The coming week: You Can Help Us Find Nancy

At this time, one of our strongest theories is that Nancy is in a care facility, but that she is in there under the wrong name.  

This could have happened because of her very limited verbal skills and probable lack of identification.

We’ve heard a number of accounts of Missing Persons who get into a care system and are later found. After weeks, months, or even years, they “pop-out."

YOU CAN HELP US FIND NANCY BY USING YOUR PERSONAL CONTACTS AND SOCIAL NETWORKS TO:

Contact anyone you know that works in or visits nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities, or "board and care".  Give them copies of the “Nancy is Still Missing” flyer. (Link to the flyer, just below) 

Ask them to look for Nancy and post the flyer for others to see.

Examples of people that might regularly visit a care facility include:

• family and friends of patients
• podiatrists
• barbers
• hairdressers
• manicurists
• massage therapists
• visiting nurses
• doctors
• hospice workers
• dentists
• physical therapists

Our callers are contacting many of these care facilities, but there are several thousand, and you can't be sure that our flyers get put up

   Links to the most recent flyers are here:  

            English Version: Nancy is Missing Flyer: English Version
            Spanish Version: Nancy is Missing Flyer: Spanish Version

      Click on the link, and then download the PDF of the flyer to your computer.

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Real world example of a loved one with dementia lost in the system who was found

My sister-in-law walked away from her home in the La Brea/Melrose area in 1999. She was unable to communicate. We hired a retired FBI agent. He searched area nursing homes to no avail.  He circulated the reward posters to the area nursing homes and 3 days later she was found. A podiatrist's assistant claimed the reward. She did foot care on patients in nursing homes and recognized her.

My sister-in-law had been picked up on the street by an employee, taken to the home, given a new ID including name and SS# to collect medical reimbursement. When reported to LAPD they were aware it is a common practice.

If you know other examples of a person lost in the system being found, please share since that information could be a useful way to find Nancy.

A really nice story in the LA Times today, by Steve Lopez... THANK YOU STEVE!

Hoping that this helps get the word out to look for Nancy and bring her home to Kirk...

Click here to read the story: Link to the LA Times story by Steve Lopez

Click here for the video from the story: Link to a video from the LA Times Article of 30 Nov

Thanksgiving, very difficult time...

Each of us felt the absence of Nancy around our Thanksgiving tables yesterday...  The empty seat and the hollow in our hearts.  None more deeply than Kirk and Nancy's parents, George and Joan.

Our best guess now is that Nancy is "in the system" here in LA County, based on the experiences of LAPD Missing Persons Detective Mercado.  Nancy could have been admitted to some care facility under an incorrect name as early as the same day as she went missing.  People reportedly "pop-out" of these facilities months or even years later when they are identified, according to Det. Mercado.

So we're continuing to:

• contact every hospital to find the facilities into which they might place a person like Nancy and contact them to see if they had any admissions matching Nancy during a specific date window
• find every facility in LA county that provides such care and contact them (thousands)
• work "top down" the LA County to find if they have taken on any indigent patients in the time window

We're also still actively tracking tips: Any credible tip is investigated to see if it is Nancy.  HUGE contributions from our team of  Tip Trackers.

So, we wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and ask you to continue to support our efforts with your time, your phone calls, and your prayers.

Together we'll bring Nancy home...

Below is a link to photos and videos from our "Light Up LA for Nancy" vigil at LACMA on Thu 17 Nov

LINK to photos and videos from our "Light Up Los Angeles for Nancy" Vigil at LACMA

Nancy the person - from a former co-worker

I met Nancy the day I started working at ITG in 1993. Actually, I met Nancy the week before the day I started working at ITG. Someone saw fit to invite me to the monthly lunch meeting for ITG's entire Los Angeles office. "All" 16 of them. It would be my first introduction into the very serious world of financial-industry software development. And the topic was… homebrewing. That's right, brewing and bottling your own beer at home. The presenter was Nancy.   

It took about 2 minutes to realize Nancy was incredibly bright. The detail at which she could describe the brewing process - the whys behind the whats and hows - was remarkable. She sounded like a professional brewer slash chemistry professor. But I think she liked to talk more about the failed attempts than the successes. Every success was a good batch of beer. But every failure was a funny story.

Along the way, Nancy was promoted to head of software development for ITG, a title she held for a few years before retiring early at age 40. That group of 16 software technologists exploded to over 200 during her time at the firm. No one worked harder or was more disciplined than Nancy. She owed the firm and her co-workers her best every single day, and she never let us down. As a leader she wanted to connect with everyone on the ever-expanding team. She took up the challenge of memorizing everyone's name and face so she was never unprepared in a meeting or hallway conversation.

THIS is what I think of when I think of Nancy and early-onset Alzheimer’s. At her peak, Nancy had the sharpest brain in the room. She had an ability to educate and entertain with her depth of knowledge, life experiences and storytelling ability. Alzheimer’s has taken a lot of that away, but Nancy is still strong in spirit. She’s not a quitter. Neither are her friends and family.

Wrap-Up to the Week and Plans for Week of November 21st

We had a busy and productive week, highlighted by our "Light Up Los Angeles for Nancy" vigil and procession event at LACMA on Thursday.  This event was championed by Nancy W. and wonderfully promoted by one of our talented, well-connected teammates, Allison M.  The event started with short messages from Kirk, Nancy's husband, Sgt Paul Ford from Manhattan Beach PD, Susan Galeas, President and CEO of Alzheimer's Greater Los Angeles, and Nancy's parents.  These words were followed by a candlelight procession following Nancy's path down Wilshire and then south on McCarthy Vista, culminating with a gathering at the location were we last saw Nancy. Richard B. led a "Moment of Hope" and we all blew out our candles and sent our hope out to the rest of the city.

Over 100 people attended and we received TV coverage from 4 local stations and multiple local newspapers.  Earlier we had radio stories about the event, as well.  We reportedly got significant local broadcast air-time on Thursday eve and again on Friday AM getting Nancy's picture out and our message of bringing Nancy home.   THIS is how we're going to find Nancy: by having more eyes looking for her.

For Thanksgiving week, (21 November) , we're re-orienting our efforts away from pushing information "into the streets" and using our teammates to seek her out in residential care facilities.   Based on a discussion with an LAPD detective from their "Missing Persons" unit we have reason to believe that she might be in a residential care facility but under a different name.  Earlier we were told that Nancy could not be in one of these facilities because they didn't accept "Jane Does", but she may have made it in via some other, mistaken name.  So we'll be contacting every one of these facilities in LA to ask them explicitly if they have a patient that matches Nancy's description.

This new theory that Nancy could be in a care facility provides another avenue to explore and new hope for our team.  However, we will continue to gather track any tips we receive via our teams of tip trackers.

Please keep Nancy in your thoughts and heart...

Another nice news story on our "Light Up Los Angeles for Nancy" vigil at LACMA last night

Nice work by Marc Cota-Robles of ABC

Click on this link for: ABC 7's Story on On Our Vigil

TV coverage of our vigil for Nancy last night: Another really nice job by Mary Beth McDade and her KTLA crew...

LINK to KTLA News Story on Our Vigil: "Light Up Los Angeles for Nancy"

A good article about our vigil in the Daily Breeze, with photos

A reporter and photographer from the Daily Breeze newspaper covered our vigil last night.

A very nice piece, with great photos from the event...  Thank you Megan Barnes and crew!

CLICK HERE to go the Daily Breeze article on our vigil...

Strong response for our "Light Up Los Angeles for Nancy" Vigil, Procession, and "Moment of Hope"

We've had a number of TV stations and newspapers tell us that they will cover our event tomorrow at LACMA!   Huge thanks to Allison Modiest for her efforts to spread the word and to Nancy Ward for pulling this event together!!!

PLEASE spread the word and hope to see you there!

"Light Up Los Angeles for Nancy": Please join us for a vigil and procession on Thursday, 17 November, at 6PM in front of LACMA

PLEASE JOIN US!  We're holding a vigil and short procession this Thursday, November 17th at 6:00 PM in front of LACMA, at Wilshire Blvd and Ogden Street, to Light Up Los Angeles for Nancy!

The purpose of the vigil is to ask the community’s continued assistance in finding Nancy Paulikas.  We hope she is on the streets, or in the system somewhere, perhaps a Jane Doe in a homeless shelter or mental institution. We are asking everyone be on the lookout for her and call into the hotline if they recognize her.  

More info about Nancy and the search effort can be found at http://nancyismissing.blogspot.com/  or on Instagram or Facebook at NancyisMissing.   The tip line is 310-650-7965.

Please RSVP via email to NancyIsMissing@gmail.com and share our vigil and procession on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!

Plan:

We'll meet on the sidewalk at LACMA's "Urban Light" art installation, pictured below.  We hope to gather many friends, family, and supporters, people from all areas of LA County who have been following the search efforts on social media and have joined the search as volunteers.   

We will seek to Light Up Los Angeles for Nancy, with the a short vigil followed by a short procession west on Wilshire to the southeast corner of Wilshire and Crescent Heights (which turns into McCarthy Vista briefly south of Wilshire).  This is the site of the last known sighting of Nancy: A security video from a nearby business captured her image shortly after she went missing on October 15.  

Speakers at the vigil will include Nancy’s husband Kirk Moody, her parents, Manhattan Beach Police Department Sgt. Paul Ford, and a representative from Alzheimer's Greater Los Angeles.

So please join us and help Light Up Los Angeles for Nancy!

Excellent article: "Before Alzheimer's: Who Was Nancy Paulikas?"

Here is an excellent article from the "Beach Reporter", 10 November 2016 written by Daniella Segura...

Excellent article: "Before Alzheimer's: Who Was Nancy Paulikas?"

Current Plans and Actions

Here are our latest plans and actions for this weekend and into next week.  If you would like to help with any of these tasks, please send an email to NancyIsMissing@gmail.com

1. We are continuing to call shelters.  Somewhat similar to hospitals, there seems to be little to no "institutional memory", so we have to continue to call and ask them to look for Nancy.
2. We are trying to have people at homeless food distribution points to hand out flyers and speak to some of the homeless.
3. We are continuing to call hospitals every day.
4. In addition to calling, we are visiting hospitals and making sure they have a hard copy of the flyer.  Typically we also try to interview the hospital social worker to see what they do if they have a Jane Doe.
5. We have received a specific tip in North Hollywood, and we are going through the police to see video from a couple of sources there (not sure if we will get to see that or if the police have to look at it).
6. Based on that tip and a few tips from the La Cienega area, we are going to have Walking Man hand delivering flyers door-to-door centered around NoHo and La Cienega / Venice Blvd.  These will be delivered Tuesday.  This is likely to create some tips that we have to chase down, so if you live around that area and are available to track down some tips from Tuesday through the end of the week, shoot us another email at NancyIsMissing@gmail.com so that we have an up-to-date list.
7. We have continued our advertisement in the LA Times and will be advertising in a couple of other outlets as well.

Thank you all for your continued interest and help.

Here's a video on YouTube to help spread the word that Nancy is Still Missing!

Please share!

Video on YouTube: Nancy is Still Missing

Another social media outlet

Here is the clickable link:  Imgur

If you sign up and "up vote" this page, it may appear on the front page.
(get your account, then do a search on "Missing Person in Los Angeles" ... go to the up arrow at the bottom and hit that).

thanks
km

Plans for Week of November 7th

Thank you for those of you who have canvassed additional areas and volunteered to be a “Tip Tracker”.  We have over 60 people signed-up in areas as diverse as Palm Desert and the City of Orange.  Send your name, cell number, and location if you want to join the “Tip Trackers” team to NancyIsMissing@gmail.com.

Some of you have asking for some guidance on areas to canvass.  Will Thomas is leading the canvassing activities, so email NancyIsMissing@gmail.com to ask for canvassing assignments and he’ll contact you.  Some areas that Will has recently assigned for canvassing include:

• 1)     Alvarado and 3^rd near McArthur Park
• 2)     Wilshire corridor east from Wilton
• 3)     Fairfax corridor south from Olympic

Current continuing activities include reviews of a small amount of surveillance video from businesses, visiting shelters and visiting police departments.  And our fabulous Phone Team is making daily phone calls to make sure that hospitals and clinics have no unidentified females fitting Nancy’s description.

Please continue to pass the flyers to your friends and community contacts.  We are hoping that we’ll soon get key information that will help us find Nancy…