Elderly Woman Missing After Wandering Away From Bronx Nursing Home

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A nursing home in the Bronx that was expected to look after its patients is now looking for one of them.

It's been more than 24 hours since an elderly woman wandered away from Citadel Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, CBS2's Raegan Medgie reported.

The woman's son is desperately looking for her and police believe they know where she is heading.

In a tearful plea, Rufus Dunbar is begging for his missing mother Doris Dunbar to be found.

"She's somewhere out there in the Bronx and she needs to come back home, with her son," Rufus Dunbar said.

Surveillance video showed the 76-year-old in the lobby of the Bronx nursing center. She suffers from dementia and was being cared for, at least that's what her son believed up until now.

"To me they didn't' do what they were supposed to do in that nursing home," he said. "She just walked out with a bunch of people."

Rufus Dunbar said he went to visit his mother Tuesday around 11 a.m., the same time police said she wandered off.

"I go up to the sixth floor. The people from the sixth floor say she's not there, she's in therapy, so I go to the therapy room. They're looking everywhere, they can't find my mother," he said. "So they have it on video, she walked out with church going people."

CBS2 contacted the Citadel Rehabilitation and Nursing Center several times on Wednesday to get its side of the story, but there was still not response as of early evening.

Police said Doris Dunbar may have left to come to the Marcy Houses in Brooklyn where she used to live. Some of her old neighbors are still there and hoping she is found safe.

"It is very shocking to me, I love her like she's my mother. She's very beautiful and I miss her," Clara of Bedford-Stuyesant said.

Rufus Dunbar is hoping someone finds his mother and brings her home.

"She's a good lady, shes got a good heart, she taught me well," he said. "Please help me."

The police continue their search for Doris Dunbar.