Silver Alert WA - Edgar Aberilla 72, Dementia, neighbor drove to Bellingham & dropped him off in Lowe's pkg lot, not familiar w/area, 4 Jul 2023

[Unalienable Rights]

Police continue search for missing Burlington man | 790 KGMI

Anyone who may have seen Aberilla is asked to call 911.

kgmi.com

BURLINGTON, Wash. – Police are continuing to ask for the public’s help locating a missing Burlington man who was last seen in Bellingham.

Burlington Police say that 72-year-old Edgar Aberilla was last seen near Lowe’s on Sunset Drive on July 4th after a neighbor dropped him off.

Aberilla has dementia and primarily speaks Filipino but knows a little English.

Investigators say he is unfamiliar with the Bellingham area and are concerned he may have gotten another ride.

He was last seen wearing a dark blue Fourth of July shirt, brown shorts, and carried a black cross-body bag.

A spokesperson for Burlington Police said that a few sightings of Aberilla have been reported, but no leads have been established.

Anyone who may have seen Aberilla is asked to call 911.

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https://twitter.com/x/status/1676633859042181121

 

[NervousNellie]

Why the heck would a neighbor drop off a 72 y/o man (with dementia!) at a Lowe's in another town, 30 minutes away?

burlington wa to bellingham wa - Google Search

 

[Unalienable Rights]

Police searching for Filipino man who disappeared a week ago outside of Bellingham Lowe’s

Edgar Aberilla, who went missing on July Fourth, was visiting his daughter from the Philippines.

www.yahoo.com

A 72-year-old man from the Philippines was last seen outside the Bellingham Lowe’s after a neighbor dropped him off on July 4, police and family members said.

Edgar B. Aberilla and his wife traveled from their home in the Philippines to visit their daughter, Abby Tullius, in Burlington, Washington, where they have been staying. Aberilla’s native language is Tagalog and he does not speak English.

Tullius said she and her parents attended a Fourth of July parade in Anacortes and then returned home. Without his family’s knowledge, Aberilla left his daughter’s home with a neighbor and was driven to the Bellingham Lowe’s at about 4 p.m.

Aberilla has dementia and sometimes needs help, said Tullius, who is a medical provider at the Skagit County Jail. He is not familiar with Burlington or Bellingham.

“That’s when I contacted the police and then the police also helped search. I think they sent like a drone to look at the slew behind our property and he was not there. And so the responding officer, Sgt. Campo, went door-to-door around the neighborhood,” she said.

Campo approached a neighbor who was pulling into his driveway who told him that he had just dropped Aberilla off at the Lowe’s in Bellingham, Tullius said.

Burlington detectives said the reason the neighbor dropped Aberilla off at Lowe’s was due to a misunderstanding because of the language barrier.

Continues at link

 

[NervousNellie]

Did the neighbor know Mr. Aberilla? My thoughts are not very generous right now.

 

[NervousNellie]

This article has a little bit of new information (e.g., they have video showing him dropped off; LE are passing out flyers and looking for additional video surveillance evidence), but it seems Mr. Aberilla is still missing.

https://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/article277223018.html

 

[CastlesBurning]

Still missing...

https://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/article277395733.html

 

[Unalienable Rights]

First clue in missing Filipino elder is found after search Sunday

A shoe carried by Edgar Aberilla was found near Lowe’s parking lot

www.cascadiadaily.com

A shoe carried by the missing 72-year-old Filipino man with dementia was found Sunday, July 23 by members of a search party near a Lowe’s parking lot in Bellingham.

***********
The shoe that was found was not the one Aberilla was wearing. Aberilla left the house only carrying a small plastic bag filled with shoes, a crossbody bag and an Xbox game in hand.

Tullius was setting up a table and tent for the search Sunday when she noticed a canvas shoe lying in a patch of grass between two parking lots. After a close look, she knew it was one of the shoes her father carried with him the day he disappeared, so Tullius said she called Bellingham police.

A Bellingham officer and a Whatcom County search-and-rescue dog arrived to inspect the shoe, Tullius said. After letting the dog get a scent from it, Bellingham PD collected some hair found inside the shoe. A DNA mouth swab of Tullius was taken to see if it would match the hair. The search dog was unable to trace the scent of the shoe, she said.

Tullius had recently requested help through a Facebook group dedicated to finding Aberilla after two weeks of searching by friends and family yielded nothing.

The six-hour search drew close to 19 people, including two Burlington police detectives, and covered a two-and-a-half-mile radius from where Aberilla was last seen.

*************
Tullius said Sunday’s efforts were a success because a clue was found, and the search now seems centralized so that Burlington and Bellingham officers can have direct communication.

“Now that everyone is here, they are actually talking to each other,” she said. Previously, she told Cascadia Daily News she was frustrated with the lack of collaboration between the two departments.

Law enforcement officers from two jurisdictions had canvassed several areas where Aberilla was last spotted and have reviewed surveillance videos.

**************
Tullius hopes more footage of her father surfaces to get a better idea of his movements.

“From [Lowe’s] we don’t know where exactly my dad went or if he took another ride with some random person,” Tullius said. “If the police discover more footage of where my dad went after he was dropped off, then maybe we will know where to proceed.”

More at link

 

[charminglane]

How frustrating.

 

[swanniee11]

Help find FB HELP US FIND . | Facebook
Admin is the daughter

 

[ttcRider]

Any updates?

 

[llnnmmas]

Edgar is still missing. We’ve been discussing the case on Bellingham’s Subreddit. Edgar’s neighbor who dropped him off at the Bellingham Lowes is Burlington councilmember James Stavig.

It’s very odd to me that Stavig would drop a man who couldn’t speak much English and was carrying a small plastic bag of shoes and holding an Xbox game off 25 miles away.

I’m also curious if Stavig is friends with any of the local police.

Edgar B. Aberilla went missing on July 4 after being dropped off at the Lowe's on Sunset Drive by Burlington City Councilmember James Stavig. Stavig is a neighbor of Aberilla's daughter, Abigail Tullius, who lives in Burlington. Aberilla and his wife were visiting from the Philippines.

First clue in missing Filipino elder is found after search Sunday | Cascadia Daily News

A shoe carried by Edgar Aberilla was found near Lowe’s parking lot

www.cascadiadaily.com

 

[NervousNellie]

Edgar is still missing. We’ve been discussing the case on Bellingham’s Subreddit. Edgar’s neighbor who dropped him off at the Bellingham Lowes is Burlington councilmember James Stavig.

It’s very odd to me that Stavig would drop a man who couldn’t speak much English and was carrying a small plastic bag of shoes and holding an Xbox game off 25 miles away.

I’m also curious if Stavig is friends with any of the local police.

Edgar B. Aberilla went missing on July 4 after being dropped off at the Lowe's on Sunset Drive by Burlington City Councilmember James Stavig. Stavig is a neighbor of Aberilla's daughter, Abigail Tullius, who lives in Burlington. Aberilla and his wife were visiting from the Philippines.

First clue in missing Filipino elder is found after search Sunday | Cascadia Daily News

A shoe carried by Edgar Aberilla was found near Lowe’s parking lot

www.cascadiadaily.com

I have wondered since the beginning what the heck this neighbor was doing dropping off someone miles away from where you encounter them when there was a huge language barrier. I would love to know his reasoning?

 

[SuspiciousM]

I have wondered since the beginning what the heck this neighbor was doing dropping off someone miles away from where you encounter them when there was a huge language barrier. I would love to know his reasoning?

Agree 100%.

I have only just seen this thread and my first thought was “What in the world did the neighbour think he was doing?”

He was neighbours with the daughter, so he must surely have known that her parents who were visiting from the Philippines would probably not be familiar with the area. I wonder how long they had been neighbours. It would only makes sense if they were new neighbours so he didn’t know her mum and dad were visiting. Even so, it seems like a weird thing to do.

Incredibly sad.

JMOO.

 

[Unalienable Rights]

The neighbor said he asked for a ride and that Mr. Aberilla spoke limited English, and the neighbor indicated that he wasn't aware of the dementia. I would like to know how he ended up taking him to Lowe's in Bellingham. Mr. Aberilla wasn't familiar with the area so surely he wouldn't have said "will you give me a ride to Lowe's in Bellingham?" Sure would like to know exactly where he said he wanted to go when he asked for the ride.

 

[sasha17]

Official missing website: Find Edgar Aberilla

It's also bizarre that the neighbor would drive Edgar to the Bellingham Lowe's store. The Mount Vernon Lowe's store is much, much closer to Burlington. If Edgar wanted to go to a hardware store or was even able to specify Lowe's, why drive so far out of the way to take him to Bellingham instead of the nearby Mount Vernon Lowe's location?

 

[sunflowermomma]

My brother is a college student in Bellingham and lives in a residential neighborhood with families and elderly people. He and his roommates regularly drive elderly neighbors into town to help them run errands or to get them to family. Bellingham has a very tight community feel so it's not odd to me at all that a neighbor would offer to give someone a ride.

It also says that Edgar is in the earlier stages of dementia. It's highly possible that to someone that doesn't know him or only knows him at a distance would have no idea that he has dementia.

 

[sasha17]

My brother is a college student in Bellingham and lives in a residential neighborhood with families and elderly people. He and his roommates regularly drive elderly neighbors into town to help them run errands or to get them to family. Bellingham has a very tight community feel so it's not odd to me at all that a neighbor would offer to give someone a ride.

It also says that Edgar is in the earlier stages of dementia. It's highly possible that to someone that doesn't know him or only knows him at a distance would have no idea that he has dementia.

I've lived in Bellingham before and totally get what you're saying. If Edgar was in Bellingham and wanted a ride to somewhere else in Bellingham, I'd agree. But he was in Burlington.

 

[sunflowermomma]

I've lived in Bellingham before and totally get what you're saying. If Edgar was in Bellingham and wanted a ride to somewhere else in Bellingham, I'd agree. But he was in Burlington.

Somehow I completely missed that - you're right, that does make it more weird. I guess I've had similar experiences in Bow and the smaller art-y towns, but Burlington/Mt Vernon leans a little more small town IMO and less likely to do that.

 

[Caring1]

Mr. Aberilla has been added to NamUs. None of this makes sense, so strange.

In Edgar’s photo it looks like he has a large, raised, flesh colored mole on the end of his nose. This to me would be considered a distinctive physical feature and should be listed/noted where there is no information at all in that section.

This is a facial feature that most people would see right away and know this is the man they saw downtown or at a restaurant, etc. Not sure of the purpose for leaving such an important detail out when you have a critical person missing that needs to be found right away.

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

By bringing people, information, forensic science and technology together, NamUs helps resolve cases.

www.namus.gov

 

[Unalienable Rights]

He has been missing for one year as of today. New article is behind paywall.

A year later, family of Filipino elder who went missing from Bellingham left without answers | Cascadia Daily News

Edgar Aberilla was last seen July 4, 2023 in the Lowe's parking lot

www.cascadiadaily.com