Swope Parkway is a busy, broad road that runs through Kansas City’s southeast. There, traffic moves swiftly. Individuals come and go. It’s not the kind of place where people just vanish into thin air, but that’s precisely what appears to have happened.
Suzann Page, a 67-year-old woman with blue eyes and gray hair, was last seen close to the 2300 block of that same parkway on Sunday morning at approximately 10:45 a.m. She had on pink shoes and a green dress with flowers. She appeared to be a grandmother traveling somewhere on a calm Sunday, according to most accounts. However, her family is aware that she was not going anywhere safe—not with her conditions or without her medication.
Both bipolar disorder and dementia have been identified in Page. When considered separately, both conditions need to be managed carefully. When combined, they make every hour that goes by without medication not only uncomfortable but potentially dangerous in ways that are difficult to overstate. This case feels more urgent than a normal missing persons report because her family has stated that she does not have her medication with her.
The public has been asked to assist the Kansas City Police Department in finding her. Involved is the KCPD Missing Persons Unit. Anyone with information is asked to get in touch with the unit directly or dial 911. However, three days into the search, there has been no verified update regarding her whereabouts, and three days is a long time for a family that is waiting by the phone.
It’s important to consider what that really means: three days for a family whose elderly, dementia-stricken parent is missing. It becomes hard to fall asleep. There is either relief or devastation at every unknown number on the phone. You begin to retrace conversations, wondering if there was a clue you overlooked, a chance that things could have turned out differently. There is a weight to that type of waiting that is difficult to describe.
Recently, Kansas City has experienced a challenging period of missing person cases. A 19-year-old mother named Alexis Olivieri and her 3-year-old daughter vanished a few days prior to Page’s disappearance; fortunately, they were discovered safe by June 12. There was good news at the end of that case. However, not every Kansas City missing person case does, and the locals are already well aware of this.
The combination of vulnerability and visibility is what makes Page’s case so compelling. The last time she was spotted, she was wearing a rather unusual outfit—green flowers and pink shoes—in a fairly busy area. She doesn’t fit in with a crowd very well. Days later, however, no sighting has been confirmed. She might have strayed into a less-traveled area. Another possibility is that someone saw her but was unaware of her disappearance.
When it comes to cases involving elderly adults with cognitive conditions, there’s a quiet, unsettling truth: the public doesn’t always recognize the signs of distress. It may appear as though a woman is just relaxing when she is sitting on a bench and appears a little perplexed. It can appear as though someone is taking a stroll when they are moving slowly in the wrong direction. Finding someone with dementia is particularly difficult because dementia doesn’t always appear to be an emergency from the outside.
The public is being asked by her family to keep a close eye on parks, bus stops, storefronts, and any other location where someone might stop or seek refuge. It is hoped that someone in Kansas City saw something and hasn’t yet realized how important it is.
