Mary Souza: missing since Thursday

Update, 11:03am: A BPD patrol officer located Mary Souza at 9:35 a.m. this morning at Stanford and San Pablo Avenues, just over the border in Oakland. The 86-year-old woman wandered away from her assisted living facility at about 7:00 p.m. yesterday. Ms. Souza appears unharmed.

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The City of Berkeley Police Department is seeking the community’s help in finding a missing woman, Mary Souza, 86, who is at risk due to age and dementia.

On Thursday evening, October 13, at about 8:00 p.m., a  staff member from an assisted living facility located in the 2600 block of Shattuck Avenue called BPD to report that one of their residents was missing.  The last time staff had seen Souza was at approximately 7:00 p.m. Although Souza uses a walker for mobility assistance, she left it behind and is ambulatory without it. The staff does not believe that Souza had any money with her when she left. Souza  does know her name and has wandered off before, most recently two months ago when she was found in Downtown Berkeley.

Members of the BPD have been investigating and searching for Mary Souza continuously since she was discovered missing. BPD officers have searched the surrounding neighborhoods on foot, gone to  her previous address in Oakland, checked local hospitals, the coroner’s office, transit systems and sent Missing Person at Risk Alert fliers and information to all neighboring agencies, in addition to contacting those agencies to share this information.

Ms Souza is 5’2″, 120 lbs and may be wearing a red jacket and black pants.

If anyone believes they have seen Mary Souza or spots her, please call BPD immediately at (510)981-5900 and mention they are calling about a missing person.

Tracey Taylor is co-founder of Berkeleyside and co-founder and editorial director of Cityside, the nonprofit parent to Berkeleyside and The Oaklandside. Before launching Berkeleyside, Tracey wrote for...