An 87-year-old Groveland man with dementia who vanished in his silver Nissan Rogue on Wednesday afternoon has been found safe roughly 40 miles from home in Orange County. Joseph J. Zdrodowski was last seen driving away from Groveland, Florida, and was spotted a day later traveling south on Alafaya Trail near Waterford Lakes, far from the western Lake County community where he lives.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office had been searching for Zdrodowski since he was reported missing Wednesday afternoon, according to WFTV. He was considered missing and endangered, and deputies asked anyone who spotted him or his vehicle, bearing Florida license plate CL84ZY, to contact the sheriff’s office or local law enforcement. He was last seen wearing black cargo pants, a gray T-shirt, black shoes, and a NASA hat.
By Thursday, the sheriff’s office announced that Zdrodowski had been safely located in Orange County, after his vehicle was spotted heading south near the busy Waterford Lakes shopping corridor. Groveland sits in western Lake County, about 27 miles west of Downtown Orlando, according to the City of Groveland, meaning Zdrodowski covered roughly 40 miles across county lines before he was found.
A Common but Dangerous Pattern for Dementia Patients
Cases like Zdrodowski’s are far from rare. The Alzheimer’s Association estimates that six out of 10 people living with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia will wander at least once during their illness, and wandering can occur even in familiar settings and at any stage of the disease. Florida carries an outsized share of that risk: the Florida Department of Elder Affairs estimated that about 580,000 Floridians aged 65 and older were living with Alzheimer’s disease in 2025, giving the state the second-highest prevalence of the condition in the nation…