Deaf woman with autism found safe after going missing 3 weeks ago
NEW YORK -- There was relief in Queens on Saturday when a woman who has autism and is deaf was finally reunited with her family weeks after going missing.
Samantha Primus' family is in good spirits after weeks of searching for her.
"The wee hours of the morning, late at night, in the cold," Samantha's sister Sophia Primus said.
On Saturday, one of Samantha's seven sisters and her friends canvassed a number of areas, and after getting a call saying she may have been at the 1 train South Ferry station, they rushed there. A family friend spotted her first.
"She looked lost, and she looked frail. Her clothes was wet," said family friend Vivianna Stanley.
Her clothes were torn, too.
Though she has autism and is deaf, Samantha recognized her sister.
"I pulled my hat off and she saw my face, and she was just, it was just happiness," Samantha's sister Ghislaine Primus said.
The 47-year-old originally went missing on Dec. 23 when she walked out of the family home. Loved ones say hours later, a paramedic spotted her at 190th Street and Hillside Avenue and brought her to Queens Hospital Center.
"Upon discharging her on the 24th of December, at 2 a.m. Christmas Eve, she was lost again," Sophia Primus said.
This time, she was missing for three weeks. Her family believes she was riding the train for much of that time.
Family members say the hospital should not have released her.
"She had all the red flags that called for attention. Mute, unable to express herself, sick, no ID," Sophia Primus said.
Her sisters, the Saint Lucian consulate and the community at large didn't give up. Samantha Primus had an army searching for her.
"It's no surprise here that she was indeed found by a fellow Saint Lucian," said Jeremiah Hyacinth, consul general of Saint Lucia.
The Primus family is now pursuing legal action against Queens Hospital Center, saying they released a mute woman with autism to the streets.
"It's over, but it's not yet over," Sophia Primus said.
Queens Hospital sent CBS2 the following statement:
"NYC Health + Hospitals provides high quality care to all its patients. We see patients who need various levels of care in all our emergency department and afford them the confidentiality of treatment as the law provides."
The family had a search party planned for Sunday, but that has been called off. It isn't clear how long Samantha Primus will remain under observation at Brooklyn Methodist as she is being treated for dehydration and a leg injury.