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Korean man with Alzheimer’s reported missing in OC

November 25, 2014

LAGUNA WOODS (CNS) – The family of a Leisure World man with Alzheimer’s disease asked for the public’s help today in finding him after reporting him missing Saturday night.

“(Sa K. Lee) rarely goes out — even during the daytime. We try to drag him out to lunch and he doesn’t really like to go out,” the man’s son, Johnny Lee, said.

The missing man’s wife thought her husband was asleep when she took a shower sometime About 9:45 p.m., and she activated a door alarm.

“There was no sign anybody left,” Johnny Lee said, adding he later discovered his father turned the alarm off before leaving.

The missing man, who is of Korean descent and does not speak English, lives with his wife and son.

Twice before over the past year, Sa Lee left home, but a Leisure World security guard found him and brought him home, Johnny Lee said.

“Sometimes he has a pretty decent consciousness and he knows who I am,” Johnny Lee said, adding that his father’s short-term memory is weak.

“He remembers 30-year-old memories, but doesn’t remember today,” Lee said.

Sa Lee was a farmer when his family lived in Korea 30 years ago. Before he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, he had a passion for golf, his son said.

“He used to play every day for 10 years,” Johnny Lee said. He was last seen wearing a navy-blue V-neck sweater, khaki pants and a baseball cap, Johnny Lee said. Sa Lee is about 5 feet 7 inches and 150 pounds, with “salt-and-pepper” hair and brown eyes.

Sa Lee, who is believed to be walking, does not have access to a vehicle.

Anyone who has seen Sa Lee, or has information about where he might be, was asked to call sheriff’s investigators at (714) 647-7055 or (714) 647-7000.