Good Samaritan rewarded for helping find missing woman with dementia
By Bianca Buono
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HUNTINGTON PARK, California (KABC) — A Huntington Park woman is being rewarded for her kindness after she found a missing 78-year-old woman with dementia who had wandered away from her home.
Security camera footage shows Jeanne Litvin cleaning up a front yard in Huntington Park, a sight that initially appeared unremarkable. But Maggie Castellanos, who lives at the home, sensed something was wrong.
At the time, Castellanos did not know the woman had been missing for more than two days and that a massive search effort was underway.
“I asked her if she was OK, if she was lost. She wasn’t coherent,” Castellanos recalled.
Litvin has primary progressive aphasia, a type of dementia that affects her ability to communicate.
Her husband, Mel Teitelbaum, was concerned when he woke up the morning of April 15 and found her gone.
“I go downstairs looking for her and the door was slightly ajar,” Teitelbaum said.
Teitelbaum teamed up with Hatzolah of Los Angeles, a volunteer emergency response organization. They started combing through their neighborhood near The Grove.
Litvin walked for hours and at some point boarded a bus, ending up nearly 15 miles from home. It remains unclear where she ate or slept during the two days she was missing.
“I cannot imagine what it is to go through something like that,” Castellanos said.
Castellanos called police, and Litvin was taken to a hospital. It took a week to confirm her identity, reuniting her with loved ones after she had been missing for 10 days.
“The longer it took us to find her, the more I felt that she was still with us,” Teitelbaum said.
On Tuesday, Castellanos was recognized for her kindness. Unbeknownst to her, there was a $25,000 reward for bringing Litvin home.
“I wasn’t expecting that at all,” Castellanos said.
“It’s our civic duty to help other people,” she added.
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