La Mesa Family Searches for Dad, an Alzheimer’s Victim

Lydia Peterson wishes it were a typical Christmas. She would love to be home with her family, baking or trimming the tree. Instead, she and her three daughters are spending their waking hours in a search.

On Sunday, her husband, Paul, left the family’s La Mesa home and hasn’t been seen since.

What makes the disappearance particularly disturbing is that the 56-year-old man suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, the degenerative condition that causes its victims to forget things, leaving them lost in a big world.

Paul Peterson left home in his 1978 Toyota, most likely to get away from a party that night at the family’s home, according to his wife.

“He doesn’t like to be with a group of people, and I believe that’s why he left,” said Lydia Peterson, 48.

By late Sunday night, her husband hadn’t returned. Police believe the man is somewhere in San Diego County with no wallet, money or identification.

In the past, he would often return home even if he lost his sense of direction while driving back, Lydia Peterson said. He would stop his truck, get out and walk the rest of the way.

The Peterson family believes he may have spent Sunday at Grossmont Center, where he and his wife own The Coffee Merchant, perhaps going to a movie.

When her husband didn’t return a few hours after leaving that Sunday, Lydia Peterson searched the area around the family’s home, but it proved futile. About 3 a.m. Monday, she called police to file a missing person’s report.

“He often left the car parked with the keys in it,” said Lydia Peterson, who spent Friday with friends and family searching for her husband. “Sometimes he would forget where he parked the car, and he would usually walk home.”

The searchers recently got a break when a customer told coffee shop employees that she saw Paul Peterson on Wednesday afternoon, at a Vons parking lot adjacent to a California Highway Patrol substation on Main Street near Los Coches Road and Interstate 8, and that he had approached her kids.

“She had children with her, and he likes babies,” Lydia Peterson said.

A command post was set up by the Peterson family--including two of the daughters, Leah, 23, and Anna, 20--on Friday in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven store at Los Coches Road and I-8, while 30 relatives, friends, neighbors and others scoured the area. The family also secured a private helicopter to assist in the search.

Reports have trickled in to the La Mesa Police Department about possible sightings of Paul Peterson walking within a 10-mile radius of the city.

Anna Peterson cautioned that her father may not be approachable. He is very shy, she said, and often will not ask anyone for directions or help to get back home. “He’s a gentle and timid man,” she said.

Robert Scott, 26, Anna’s fiancee, said, “He’s out to convince himself that he can do it on his own.” He recalled several occasions when Paul Peterson forgot where his car was after driving it to participate in a race.

“For him, running was effortless,” Scott said, “and if he forgot where he left his car, he would run to his house and say, ‘I’m home.’ Then we would go back and get his car.”

“He would drive to places that he knew,” Lydia Peterson added. “When I’m with him, sometimes he would forget where to turn, and I would have to point that out to him.”

His wife said the former machinist, who used to make aircraft and boating products, had eased up on his jogging, spending more time at the store to unload supplies and “hang out and entertain the customers.”

“Almost everybody in the mall knows him,” Scott said.

Meanwhile, La Mesa Police Detective Mike McElroy said the department is working on a few leads. He added that possible sightings have been reported “all the way from Oceanside to the border.” Much of the search is being conducted in the eastern part of the county where most of the reported sightings have occurred, he said.

“Unfortunately, all of the information that we seem to be getting doesn’t seem to be panning out,” McElroy said.

A $1,500 reward has been offered for information leading to Paul Peterson’s safe return. Peterson is 5-foot-10, weighs 165 pounds, is balding with dark brown and gray hair and has a beard and mustache.

He was last seen wearing demi-glasses (or half glasses), brushed tan Levi’s, a flannel shirt, running shoes and hearing aids in both ears. Police said anyone who has seen Peterson should call the La Mesa Police Department at 469-6111.

The Peterson family is optimistic that someone will find him walking around and report it to authorities.

“It’s going to be cold out there,” said Anna Peterson. “He’s going to be hungry and tired when we find him.

“We’ll find him.”