Father was left abroad, police say
The son of a Whittier man with dementia denies taking him to England and then abandoning him there.
Fifteen months ago, an elderly man with an American accent was found wandering around a British bus station parking lot disoriented.
Identifying him took much detective work, but authorities now say he is Earl Roger Curry, a 76-yearold Whittier man suffering from dementia. Los Angeles County officials and British police investigation allege he was simply dumped in England by his son during a visit — a charge his son, Kevin Curry, denies.
The elder Curry was returned to the United States by British authorities last year and is now in a Bellflower nursing home.
“I’ve never seen one like this before. I have been in the business for 20 years: A U.S. citizen abandoned in another country,” said Connie D. Draxler, the deputy director of the L.A. County Office of the Public Guardian. “There are rarely cases of granny dumping, but I don’t know of any so dramatic.”
The case has generated intense interest in England this week after the BBC aired a documentary examining his case.
According to documents filed in probate court by the Office of the Public Guardian, the county is seeking conservancy of Curry. “No one in his family is prepared to accept responsibility for him,” the agency said. “His own wife and son abused him when they took him overseas only to abandon
him there.”
In several documents, the public guardian alleges that his family in November 2015 left him in England. The BBC interviewed Curry’s son, who denied he had anything to do with abandoning his father. The Times could not reach family members.
No criminal charges have been filed in the case.
For months, Curry sat in a nursing home in Hereford, the heart of England, as British police scoured the world with Interpol’s help.
All he could recall was that his name was “Roger Curry,” and investigators knew that he was tall and slim, with gray hair and a squint, and that he spoke with a North American accent, according to Britain’s West Mercia police.
He was found on a Saturday evening wearing newly purchased clothes from British retailer Tesco: a black hoodie, black jogging pants, black socks and running shoes, police said.
With few clues, investigators made several international public appeals for help identifying the man. In March 2016, British police took it one step further and asked for the public’s help to identify another man seen with “Roger,” describing him as in his 40s with combatstyle trousers and black boots. West Mercia police said he was seen walking “Roger” to the hospital. In a social media campaign, the police used the hashtag #RogersLostIdentity to spread the story on Facebook and Twitter.
Web sleuths around the globe began searching for answers. One woman came forward to say she believed the older man was Earl Roger Curry. She posted a picture of him.
Authorities finally figured out who Curry was after the arrest of a 50-year-old man British man in April 2016 on suspicion of kidnapping Curry. He has not been charged.
That man, identified as Simon Hayes, admitted that when he found Curry and flagged down an ambulance in Hereford, he was not a stranger, according to court documents filed by the public guardian.
“Mr. Hayes confessed that he lied about finding Mr. Curry,” wrote public guardian attorney William C. Sias in probate court records. Curry’s son and wife had brought him to England to be hospitalized, Hayes told British investigators. “Mr. Hayes confessed that Kevin Curry had instructed him to claim that he had found Mr. Curry wandering in the streets.”
Hayes could not be reached for comment.
Authorities figured out that Earl Roger Curry lived in Whittier, where some neighbors told the BBC that he often roamed the neighborhood in a disoriented state. He returned to L.A. last July.
When the L.A. County public guardian office helped bring him back to the U.S., it learned the details of the British investigation, Draxler said.
Curry, a former registered nurse with Kaiser Permanente, has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia and requires total care, the public guardian said. He is residing in a board-and-care facility in Bellflower because he has nowhere else to go.
The public guardian is seeking a conservancy for Curry. The agency said the Social Security Administration suspended sending his benefits to his relatives as a result of “suspected elder abuse and abandonment.”
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has appointed a temporary conservator to look after Curry’s interests and assets. In court documents, county lawyers noted several other relatives are unable to care for his needs. A judge will decide in April whether to appoint a permanent conservator to ensure Curry’s well-being.