Elderly couple with dementia missing from Wood Dale found safe

WOOD DALE, Ill. (WLS) -- Police in northwest suburban Wood Dale said a missing elderly couple with dementia have been found safe.

Donald and Jannette Warren hadn't been seen since Tuesday morning, when they were leaving a doctor's office near North and Harlem in Wood Dale.

"Every time the phone rings my heart is pounding," Dan Warren, the couple's son, said 36 hours after his parents left home.

The couple was spotted at 1:20 a.m. Wednesday in Cary, about 30 miles northwest of their home. They spoke with a police officer at a gas station there, but he had no idea they were in danger as the missing persons alert hadn't yet been issued.

"They asked the Cary officer for directions back to Wood Dale. He gave them. They told the Cary officer they were going to stay at a motel for the evening," Wood Dale Police Deputy Chief Mike Rivas said.

The couple is driving a silver dodge minivan with a Cavalier's drum and bugle corps logo on each side. Late Wednesday afternoon, there was another confirmed sighting.

This time, it was 40 miles from Cary, near Irving Park and Western on Chicago's North Side. The couple was at a Dunkin' Donuts and told employees they were heading to the doctor.

Dan Warren can't believe his mom and dad are missing, but apparently still on the move.

"Stints, pacemakers, 35 percent of his heart doesn't work. He's 87-and-a-half years old. He can't drive at night. He'd be exhausted," Dan Warren said.

Late Wednesday night, an alert Deerfield police officer spotted and stopped the couple in the northern suburb.

"We are in the process of contacting family to go up there and bring that back safe and sound," Dep. Chief Rivas said.

Dan Warren said his sister is on her way to meet their parents, who are being checked out by paramedics but appear to be OK.

He said he's very thankful to the alert officer who located his parents.