The search for a missing elderly with Alzheimer's spread into neighborhoods and shrub land, as the family fanned out across Harlingen on Saturday looking for any trace of former State Representative Don Lee.
"He takes heart medication and some diabetes medication, and it's just getting critical,” Lee’s son Delton said. “At 79 year's old people have a tendency of having dehydration problems like six-month-old children."
Family, friends and volunteers went by businesses in the South Harlingen area posting flyers on the windows.
They told Action 4 News, the 79-year-old escaped from the Canterbury Court mental care facility in Harlingen on Thusrday, just after 3 p.m., and has not been seen since.
By Saturday afternoon, they had expanded their search to within a two and a half mile radius of the facility.
"We're just taking it by the day,” Delton added. “We're obviously hoping that it's going to turn out well."
The family is still questioning how the elderly man escaped from the mental care facility.
A spokes person at Canterbury Court said Lee stacked up furniture and climbed a 10 foot wall to escape.
The family says their focus at the moment is not finding fault, but on finding Lee, and they request the public's help.
"Somebody has seen him,” Delton concluded. “Somebody knows right where he is, or really close to where he is.
“They just don't know it."
On Friday night, the Texas Department of Public Safety used helicopters with infrared imaging to search for Lee, but to no success.
Harlingen police have not issued a Silver Alert in the case.
They told Action 4 News the criteria are very specific, and that this case does not meet those criteria.
Anyone with information can call Harlingen Police at (956) 216-5400 or (956) 425-8477.
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