Miss-Delectable
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2004
- Messages
- 17,160
- Reaction score
- 7
EagleTribune.com, North Andover, MA - Missing deaf man reunited with family It's a mystery where he was for 10 days
Raymundo Richiez is home safe, 10 days after he disappeared from Lawrence and just as his family was beginning to fear they would never see him again.
Richiez, 41, who is deaf and mute, was found in North Reading yesterday morning. Police there realized who he was after reading about his disappearance in yesterday's Eagle-Tribune.
But what happened to Richiez between 1:30 a.m. Oct. 23 and yesterday morning is still a mystery. When he arrived home, he had in his pocket a Boston subway pass purchased at the Braintree station on the Red line the afternoon of Oct. 25.
Richiez, who does not know sign language, has communicated with his family that someone purchased the card for him. He also was carrying an item that suggests he may have been in Lowell.
"We have no idea where the guy's been the last 10 days," North Reading Lt. Edward Hayes said.
Police in North Reading received multiple calls around 8:30 a.m. that a suspicious person was in a residential neighborhood. Officer Dana Rowe, who was on patrol, met with Richiez and tried to communicate with him, but was unsuccessful.
Rowe kept an eye on Richiez though, and later found him in the area with a small wagon, a hand trolley and an assortment of other odd items, including a rug and pictures that date to the early 1900s.
"We've got a picture of a car that has to be a 1925 Ford," Hayes said.
Hoping to learn where Richiez came from, Sgt. Lawrence Tremblay drove him around North Reading. Sign language interpreters were also called in.
Eventually, an officer opened the Eagle-Tribune and recognized Richiez in a photograph. Lawrence police were called. They took him to Lawrence General Hospital where he was reunited with his family.
The reunion was rambunctious, cousin Lupita Valdez said, with family thrilled to see Richiez alive.
Since again seeing his mother, his brother and his other relatives, Richiez has been trying to communicate where he went and what happened to him. His family has a strong suspicion that someone made him perform manual labor.
"We'll talk to the family again tomorrow," Lawrence police Chief John Romero said. "The important thing is he's home now and safe, but we want to figure out what happened to him."
"My sense is he wandered away, maybe became disoriented, couldn't communicate," Romero said. "It would probably take you four hours, but you could walk (to North Reading)."
Richiez has always proudly operated on his own, his family said, walking and biking in his Water Street neighborhood, working odd jobs at convenience stores and hanging out at restaurants. He has never disappeared before, they said.
"It's just freaky," said Valdez, who came from New Jersey to search for her cousin. "We're going to have to find a better way to track him down."
Richiez was last seen by his family the night of Oct. 22. A cab driver dropped him at Walgreens on Lowell Street around 1:30 the next morning, police learned. He had only $20 on him, police said. His family placed posters around Lawrence, as well as in parts of Boston looking for him. Police took up the case and believed he may have fallen into the Merrimack River. There was little hope that he was alive.
Police found Richiez is relatively good condition, Lt. Hayes said. He was wearing the same clothes he went missing in and was unshaven but was otherwise unharmed. His hands were toughened, one reason his family believes he may have been performing hard labor.
At the hospital yesterday, Richiez waited to be evaluated, but was active, moving around the room, communicating with his hands, smiling. His family, too, is ecstatic to have him back, though still perplexed about where he went.
"The important thing is that he survived," his mother, Belgica Marquez, said.
Raymundo Richiez is home safe, 10 days after he disappeared from Lawrence and just as his family was beginning to fear they would never see him again.
Richiez, 41, who is deaf and mute, was found in North Reading yesterday morning. Police there realized who he was after reading about his disappearance in yesterday's Eagle-Tribune.
But what happened to Richiez between 1:30 a.m. Oct. 23 and yesterday morning is still a mystery. When he arrived home, he had in his pocket a Boston subway pass purchased at the Braintree station on the Red line the afternoon of Oct. 25.
Richiez, who does not know sign language, has communicated with his family that someone purchased the card for him. He also was carrying an item that suggests he may have been in Lowell.
"We have no idea where the guy's been the last 10 days," North Reading Lt. Edward Hayes said.
Police in North Reading received multiple calls around 8:30 a.m. that a suspicious person was in a residential neighborhood. Officer Dana Rowe, who was on patrol, met with Richiez and tried to communicate with him, but was unsuccessful.
Rowe kept an eye on Richiez though, and later found him in the area with a small wagon, a hand trolley and an assortment of other odd items, including a rug and pictures that date to the early 1900s.
"We've got a picture of a car that has to be a 1925 Ford," Hayes said.
Hoping to learn where Richiez came from, Sgt. Lawrence Tremblay drove him around North Reading. Sign language interpreters were also called in.
Eventually, an officer opened the Eagle-Tribune and recognized Richiez in a photograph. Lawrence police were called. They took him to Lawrence General Hospital where he was reunited with his family.
The reunion was rambunctious, cousin Lupita Valdez said, with family thrilled to see Richiez alive.
Since again seeing his mother, his brother and his other relatives, Richiez has been trying to communicate where he went and what happened to him. His family has a strong suspicion that someone made him perform manual labor.
"We'll talk to the family again tomorrow," Lawrence police Chief John Romero said. "The important thing is he's home now and safe, but we want to figure out what happened to him."
"My sense is he wandered away, maybe became disoriented, couldn't communicate," Romero said. "It would probably take you four hours, but you could walk (to North Reading)."
Richiez has always proudly operated on his own, his family said, walking and biking in his Water Street neighborhood, working odd jobs at convenience stores and hanging out at restaurants. He has never disappeared before, they said.
"It's just freaky," said Valdez, who came from New Jersey to search for her cousin. "We're going to have to find a better way to track him down."
Richiez was last seen by his family the night of Oct. 22. A cab driver dropped him at Walgreens on Lowell Street around 1:30 the next morning, police learned. He had only $20 on him, police said. His family placed posters around Lawrence, as well as in parts of Boston looking for him. Police took up the case and believed he may have fallen into the Merrimack River. There was little hope that he was alive.
Police found Richiez is relatively good condition, Lt. Hayes said. He was wearing the same clothes he went missing in and was unshaven but was otherwise unharmed. His hands were toughened, one reason his family believes he may have been performing hard labor.
At the hospital yesterday, Richiez waited to be evaluated, but was active, moving around the room, communicating with his hands, smiling. His family, too, is ecstatic to have him back, though still perplexed about where he went.
"The important thing is that he survived," his mother, Belgica Marquez, said.