71-Year-Old Man Reported Missing

—By Bay City News Service

The Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office is searching for a missing 71-year-old man who left a nursing care facility near Santa Cruz on Wednesday and did not return.

William Laughlin, who sometimes gets confused and has occasional memory problems, had left the Helping Hands center at 2900 Soquel Ave. at about noon Wednesday and was supposed to return by 10 p.m. that day, sheriff's deputies said.

The center, where Laughlin is a patient, notified the sheriff's office on Thursday that he was missing and that the facility was concerned about his health, deputies said.

Laughlin, who became a resident at the center last Friday, is described as a white man who is 6 feet tall, weighs about 180 pounds and has blond, curly shoulder-length hair. He was last seen wearing a white shirt and black hat.

Laughlin is known to frequent the city of Watsonville and the Coral Street Shelter in Santa Cruz, deputies said.

Anyone with information about his whereabouts is urged to contact the sheriff's office at (831) 471-1121.

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