Crime & Safety
Pasco Detectives Search for Missing Man
A man walked away from an assisted living facility on Feb. 19 and is considered endangered.
Pasco Sheriff’s detectives are searching for a missing 52-year-old man who suffers from schizophrenia, severe anxiety and diabetes.
Scott Hamilton walked away from the Hillandale Assisted Living Facility, at 6333 Langston Ave., in New Port Richey on Feb. 19 at about 9:30 a.m., and staff members haven’t seen him since.
They consider him endangered because he did not leave with any medication, and he has difficulty functioning on his own, detectives say.
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“We’re getting a little worried,” said John Ross, administrator for the home. “We’ve been calling hospitals and checking everywhere,” he said.
Scott was last seen wearing a yellow shirt and blue jeans. He is 5-foot-6 and 150 pounds. He has a shaved head and missing top front teeth. He left with “no money, no ID,” Ross said.
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This wasn’t the first time Hamilton has left the facility, the administrator said. Twice the three-year resident of Hillandale ended up in a Pinellas County mental health facility under the name of “Alexander Hamilton.”
This is the longest he has ever been gone.
“This is odd,” Ross said. “Normally, we find him in a couple of hours.”
Ross said he has had two reports of people sighting Hamilton. The first time was hours after he went missing. Someone saw him at the Congress Food Mart on Congress Street in New Port Richey, but by the time employees were notified he had once again vanished from the area. A woman reported seeing him over the weekend at a gas station on U.S. 19 in Hudson.
“He was buying a beer somehow,” Ross said he was told.
Hamilton does not have family locally, and Ross said it’s strange that he headed north this time because he has headed south in the past.
Ross said he is most concerned about Hamilton being without his diabetes medication. He said that the missing man often talks extensively about the military, in which he served a year.
“He talks about it like he’s still a part of it,” Ross said.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Pasco Sheriff’s Office at (727) 844-7711.
