A woman who vanished from New York state 42 years ago has been found alive living in a care home in Massachusetts, police have said. Flora Stevens, now 78, went missing in August 1975 after her husband dropped her off at a doctor's appointment in Monticello, New York.
Mrs Stevens was a 36-year-old employee at a Catskills resort at the time of her disappearance. Her case remained unsolved until a New York state investigator contacted local police in September about skeletal remains that roughly matched her description.
Detective Rich Morgan from the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office searched databases to find a relative for a DNA sample when he discovered that someone had been using Mrs Stevens's social security number in Massachusetts. This led them to a care home in Lowell, about 23 miles northwest of Boston, where she was living under the name Flora Harris.
Police interviewed Mrs Stevens but said they could not confirm her whereabouts due to her dementia. Her medical records showed she had lived in care homes in New Hampshire and New York City before arriving in Lowell in 2001. Investigators added that 'because of her illness, it is still a mystery how and why she disappeared'.
Mrs Stevens has no living relatives and her estranged husband died in 1985. Sullivan County Sheriff Mike Schiff said: 'It's not too often we get to solve a 42-year-old missing-person case. The main thing is we know Flora is safe.'
