Elderly man with dementia allegedly abandoned by son in England
WHITTIER, Calif. -- An elderly man from Whittier, who suffers from dementia, was allegedly abandoned by his own son overseas.
Zenia Leon said she can hardly believe the story of the man who lived in the now fenced-off house right across the street. His name is Roger Curry.
She said Roger Curry and his wife became sick years ago, so much so that their son Kevin moved into the house to help care for them.
Roger Curry had dementia, and Leon said that wasn't easy for Kevin.
"The relationship was kind of, you know, unstable. He would come over and scream and yell," Leon shared.
Then, the house caught fire one night. Luckily, the Currys weren't home at the time.
With the home now red-tagged and locked up, Leon said it appeared that for a while, they were being forced to live in the backyard.
"There was, you know, takeout food and canisters and it was dirty. And it looks like something you'd see at a homeless encampment," she said.
After that, they were gone.
Leon said she had no idea where they were until months later, a television reporter showed up asking her if these were pictures of Roger Curry. She said, "of course they were."
It turned out Roger Curry was no longer in Whittier, but thousands of miles away in Hereford, England.
Hereford is where BBC Panorama was working on a show called "The Mystery of the Unknown Man." According to the report, Roger Curry was abandoned there by his own son.
"Did you dump your father in England, Kevin?" the reporter is heard asking the son, but they didn't get any answers.
Roger Curry is now back in the U.S. being cared for not far from his Whittier home. His wife is believed to be with Kevin.
"Who would dump their father like that? But it all boils down, I think, to health care and how expensive it is in the United States," said Leon.
Eyewitness News contacted the FBI to inquire about potential charges being filed in connection with the elderly man's disappearance but has received no response as of Friday morning.
