Wife and son 'dumped American man with dementia in UK car park'

An American man with dementia was flown from his Los Angeles home to Britain and allegedly left in a car park by his wife and son, according to court documents in the US seen by the BBC.
Roger Curry, 76, was allegedly abandoned without identification in the car park of Hereford bus station on 7 November 2015.

In court papers filed in Los Angeles by the LA public guardian’s office, and seen by the BBC’s Panorama programme, it is claimed: “In late 2015 Mr Curry was taken surreptitiously to England by his wife Mary Curry and his son Kevin Curry and abandoned there.”

Curry was found at the bus station in the company of two men who flagged down a passing ambulance. As paramedics assessed him, one of the men, described as having an American accent, left the scene.

Curry appeared to have been well looked after and was wearing new clothing from Tesco. He was taken into the care of a nursing home, and police and social services spent months trying to confirm his identity.

Though he gave the name Roger Curry to staff caring for him, police did not know whether it was his real name. He told doctors and care home staff he was not from the area and had been “training” nearby, leading police to contact veterans’ organisations in case he was a former serviceman.

An international appeal was launched and in March last year West Mercia police said they were anxious to trace the man with the American accent who vanished after a member of the public stepped in to help.

Following that appeal, a viewer came forward after having found a old photograph on the internet showing what looked like a younger version of the man now in care. The photo came from a 1958 yearbook for Edmonds high school in Washington state and showed an 18-year-old student called Roger Curry.

BBC investigators linked the Roger Curry of the yearbook to a burnt-out house in an affluent suburb of Los Angeles. Neighbours identified Curry as a former nurse who was married with two children, and told BBC investigators how the family home had burned down in the middle of the night.

At one point, it seems, Curry and his wife, who was said to be ill, were camping out in the yard of their burnt-out home, Panorama reported. Three months later, Roger Curry was found in Hereford, the programme claimed.

Eight months after that, Curry was flown back to the US where he is now under the care of authorities in Los Angeles.

Curry’s son Kevin told Panorama he had nothing to do with the apparent abandonment of his father.

He told the programme that his father became ill when they were visiting England on holiday and he asked a friend to take him to hospital. The programme said he did not explain why he had left his father in England for eight months.

As part of the investigation, a 50-year-old man from Taunton, Somerset, was arrested on suspicion of kidnap and was bailed. He has not been charged.

Because of the high cost of care in the US, elderly people are sometimes abandoned at hospitals in a practice called granny-dumping.

The Panorama investigation airs on BBC One at 8.30pm on Monday.

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Wife and son 'dumped American man with dementia in UK car park'