KATU
April 10th, 2015
Link to Article
GRESHAM, Ore. — Diane Holcom’s long battle with Alzheimer’s disease that slowly robbed her of her memory ended in a wooded area just off a side street in Fairview.
Holcom, who was 74 years old, apparently fell down in berry bushes near the corner of 205th and Thompson Street in Fairview and couldn’t get back up.
The Multnomah County Medical Examiner said Holcom died from exposure.
“I was very surprised,” said neighbor Kathleen Mitchell, “because when they said 205th and Thompson, I said to my husband, ‘That’s right down our street.’ And I’d known she’d been missing. I thought that was really a long way because I knew she was in Gresham somewhere and I just wondered, that was so odd though.”
Ron Holcom reported his wife missing from their Gresham home March 24 when she didn’t come back from her usual morning walk.
“I was downstairs. So she left the house unaware – me being unaware – that she’d left,” Ron Holcom told KATU News the day after reporting his wife missing.
Family and friends posted fliers while police canvassed nearby neighborhoods.
There were a few random sightings, but no solid leads on where Diane Holcom went until her body was found by someone walking along railroad tracks in Fairview early Thursday evening.
Diane Holcom’s body was found more than 3 ½ miles from the house she walked away from.
Alzheimer’s care advocates say people with the disease often keep walking once they’re lost.
Many won’t ask for help.
Kathleen Mitchell says no one she knows saw Diane Holcom walking down the street where Holcom’s body was found.
Mitchell feels for the victim’s family because her dad suffered from Alzheimer’s disease too before he died.
“They have good days, and they have bad days,” said Mitchell.
KATU News contacted Ron Holcom by phone Friday afternoon. He said he wasn’t ready yet to talk about what happened to his wife.
https://katu.com/news/local/medical-examiner-gresham-woman-with-alzheimers-died-from-exposure
