New Yorker missing for 42 years found alive suffering from dementia in rural Massachusetts

Flora Stevens was 36 when she disappeared in August 1975

Sheriff's Detectives Ed Clouse, left, and Rich Morgan pose with Flora Stevens (Sullivan County Sheriff's Office/AP)

Authorities say a New York woman who disappeared 42 years ago has been found suffering from dementia and living in Massachusetts.

The sheriff’s office in Sullivan County, New York, says Flora Stevens was 36 when she disappeared in August 1975 after her husband dropped her off for a doctor’s appointment at a Catskills hospital.

Police periodically reviewed her missing person case but kept hitting dead ends.

In September, a query from New York State Police on a different cold case led a sheriff’s detective to discover someone at an assisted-living residence in Lowell, Massachusetts, using Stevens’ Social Security number.

He and another detective went there Tuesday and confirmed the person was Stevens, who now uses the last name Harris. She’s lived there since 2001 and apparently has no living relatives.

AP