A team of people working diligently to find a missing 55-year-old woman with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease is seeking to leverage the popularity of Pokémon Go to encourage players to search for her.
The popular mobile game’s creator recently released an update for the Halloween holiday that has users returning to the game in large numbers. Since gameplay must take place by exploring public areas, the team of family and friends working to find Manhattan Beach resident Nancy Paulikas is reaching out to its players on social media to make them aware of her disappearance.
“While there are normally a lot of people playing the game, now there’s going to be even more people over the next few days out trying to catch these limited characters,” search participant Ken Long said. “So I suggested while people are out there looking for these characters, they just take a minute and look up for Nancy.”
Paulikas was last seen around by her family around 2:45 p.m. Oct. 15 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. She is described as a white female with graying brown hair and blue eyes, 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighing around 140 pounds. She was last seen wearing a red, long-sleeved blouse with a white paisley print, jeans and black and white sneakers.
She suffers from early-onset Alzheimer’s disease and is at the developmental stage of a 4-year-old making it difficult for her to communicate, her family said.
If you information regarding Paulikas’ whereabouts contact 310-567-6594 or 310-567-6396. You can also contact LAPD Detective Mercado at 213-996-1800.