Man Missing For A Month Found Dead Inside Bedford VA Hospital
BEDFORD (CBS) -- A missing man was found dead Friday at the Bedford VA Hospital. Investigators said the body of the 62-year-old man was found in the stairwell of a building.
The man was last seen at the facility more than a month ago on May 8. He was reported missing a few days later.
The man, whose identity has not been released, lived in building five. Residents say certain exits have been blocked off for months to prevent coronavirus spread and they wonder if that's why nobody found the missing man in a stairwell for weeks.
Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said the incident is "very concerning" because he was wearing the clothes he was reported missing in. "It appears that he's been there from the eighth of May," Ryan said.
The federal government runs the VA Hospital; the company Caritas runs the housing complex. In a statement to WBZ, Caritas said it "is committed to the health and safety of our residents, and follows strict protocols when a resident is discovered missing. On May 13 we filed a missing persons report for a BVQ resident, and have been working with the VA and the Bedford Police to ascertain the whereabouts of this resident. The stairwell where the deceased man was found was outside the lease premises of Caritas Communities, is alarmed and solely controlled by the VA. Caritas Communities and the Bedford VA are cooperating fully with the investigation."
Bedford Police did a quick search but didn't find the missing 62-year-old.
"We're looking at obviously the circumstances around which he was last seen and looking at the efforts that were made from that day May 8 until today," Marian Ryan said. "We are going to be looking at all those circumstances and making an assessment whether appropriate action was taken."
Michael Hasson lives two buildings over and says he's friends with the man and had noticed his absence.
"He was just the friendliest guy to talk to," Hasson said. "Everybody's kind of scratching their heads like where did this guy go? He wouldn't just disappear like that."
The Middlesex District Attorney says an autopsy will be done to determine how and when the man died.