Massachusetts homeless veteran missing for a month found dead in stairwell of VA hospital he disappeared from
BEDFORD, MASSACHUSETTS: A man who was missing for a month was found dead in a stairwell at the Bedford Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Massachusetts. The body of the veteran whose name has not been released was found on Friday, June 12.
According to reports, the 62-year-old homeless veteran was living at the facility and was last seen on May 8. He was reported missing five days after on May 13. He reportedly lived in building five at the facility, and his housing was being provided by Caritas Communities, a nonprofit that works to house homeless veterans.
Residents at the facility told WBZ-TV that some exits have been blocked off for months to stop the spread of coronavirus. They also suggested that was why no one was able to find the man when he disappeared. Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan called the incident “very concerning” as he was wearing the same clothes he was reported missing in. “It appears that he’s been there from the eighth of May,” Ryan added.
Though the federal government runs the hospital, the housing complex is run by the company Caritas. In a statement, the company said it is “committed to the health and safety of residents, and follows strict protocols when a resident is discovered missing. On May 13 we filed a missing person report for a BVQ resident, and have been working with the VA and the Bedford Police to ascertain the whereabouts of this resident. The stairwell where the deceased man was found was outside the lease premises of Caritas Communities, is alarmed and solely controlled by the VA. Caritas Communities and the Bedford VA are cooperating fully with the investigation.”
While Ryan said they were “looking at obviously the circumstances around which he was last seen and looking at the efforts that were made from that day May 8 until today. We are going to be looking at all those circumstances and making an assessment of whether appropriate action was taken.” It has been said after the missing report was filed, Bedford Police did a quick search but could not find the old man.
Another resident at the facility, Michael Hasson, said he was friends with the deceased man and had noticed his absence. “He was just the friendliest guy to talk to. Everybody’s kind of scratching their heads like where did this guy go? He wouldn’t just disappear like that,” Hasson said.
The cause of death was not immediately clear but the Middlesex District Attorney said an autopsy will be done to find out how and when the veteran died.
In another incident, a man in California was arrested and charged for allegedly poisoning eight homeless people, including an elderly person, and then record their reactions to eating the chemical-laced food. William Robert Cable, 38, allegedly poisoned the homeless people in the city of Huntington Beach in May that saw all his victims have seizure-like symptoms, difficulty in breathing, vomiting, and intense mouth and stomach pain.
“These human beings were preyed upon because they are vulnerable. They were exploited and poisoned as part of a twisted form of entertainment, and their pain was recorded so that it could be relived by their attacker over and over again,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said.