Grandson mourns woman, 84, found after weeklong search

BRIDGEPORT — To Jonathan Rodrigues, Teresa Zangrilli was more than a grandmother.

“She raised me,” Rodrigues, 32, recalled Monday of the late 84-yearold who police said wandered away from a city shopping plaza a week ago and died soon after being found Sunday. “Growing up, I didn’t have my parents around for me like that, so I spent so much time with her.”

Zangrilli shared with him her love of cooking and baking and her faith, taught Rodrigues Portuguese — she was born in Brazil — and instilled in her grandson an appreciation for music, especially the songs of rockand-roll icon Elvis Presley.

“I’m probably one of the biggest fans of Elvis because of her,” Rodrigues said. “She played ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ and all these big hits growing up.” So during this last week of her life — and even though a family dispute had kept them apart for two years — Rodrigues said he tried desperately to repay Zangrilli for all she had done for and meant to him.

Zangrilli had diabetes and Alzheimer’s, a form of dementia. She wandered off from the Price Rite supermarket on upper Main Street in the North End, near the Trumbull border, Oct. 18, police said.

The search for her hit social media soon after, and volunteers quickly mobilized.

“Every single day this week, I just thought about the worst, and my grandmother being out there, suffering. That’s what kept me motivated every single day,” Rodrigues said. “I didn’t go home. I didn’t sleep. I didn’t work. I didn’t do anything this week besides search for my grandmother. ... Driving up and down Main Street, side roads.

“I didn’t want to leave her out there,” Rodrigues said.

Finally on Sunday around 11:30 a.m., a search party that included Rodrigues discovered his grandmother, clinging to life, a mile and a half away from the market, in a wooded area behind an office building on Cambridge Drive in Trumbull.

“I just laid down with her and spoke with her,” Rodrigues said Monday. “She wasn’t very responsive but was breathing and I was just talking to her and telling her we never gave up looking for her at all.”

Initially both Rodrigues and the city celebrated her recovery on social media.

“WE FOUND HER!!!” Rodrigues posted on his Facebook page.

“F O U N D!” announced City Hall on Twitter. “Teresa Zangrilli has been found alive. She is currently being transported to the hospital.” Hope quickly turned to tragedy. “When Teresa Zangrilli was found she was very weak,” the city wrote soon afterward on Twitter. “Medics and doctors were unsuccessful at life saving efforts.”

On Monday, Bridgeport police said that the Connecticut State Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will conduct an autopsy and that the investigation into Zangrilli’s death “is continuing.” No further details were available.

Rodrigues said his grandmother had been living in the North End with a relative and, because of tensions within the family, he had not seen or spoken with his grandmother for about two years. At that time she had already been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, he said.

The family member Rodrigues identified as her caregiver could not be reached for comment.

“It’s just heartbreaking when something like this happens,” said Kristen Cusato, director of communications for the Alzheimer's Association, Connecticut Chapter.

Cusato, speaking generally and not about Zangrilli’s case, said that “Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia deal with short term memory issues. ... Six out of 10 people with dementia will wander. It’s not a matter of if, it’s almost a matter of when. So it’s really important to take as many precautions as you can with your loved one to try to make sure this doesn’t happen.”

And Zangrilli was religious, Rodrigues said. Right before she was transported to the hospital Sunday, Rodrigues repeated a phrase to his grandmother that she often said to him.

“In my late teens, early 20s, I was trying to pursue a specific career path in music and entertainment,” Rodrigues said. “Every single time I’d leave the house — every time — she’d say in Portuguese, ‘If God willing.’ ”