MISSING PERSON Dementia victim fails to turn up in month

Family members are beginning to fear the worst.
OXFORD, Ohio (AP) -- A monthlong investigation involving search dogs, helicopters and 400 volunteers has failed to turn up any clues in the disappearance of a retired college professor who has Alzheimer's disease.
The wife of 81-year-old Charlie Capel awoke May 21 to find her husband gone. His glasses and wallet remained on the bedroom dresser. The front door was open at the house about two miles from Miami University, where Capel taught mathematics for 30 years.
"I want to believe that Charlie went for a walk that morning -- he used to be a big walker -- made a wrong turn and got lost," said 82-year-old June Capel, his wife of 58 years. "Maybe someone picked him up and dropped him off at a shelter or something. I don't know. We may never know."
Extensive search
Police in this town of 22,000, 28 miles north of Cincinnati, used dogs and helicopters to search a 10-mile radius around the house four times. On June 8, about 400 volunteers searched 500 acres of parkland, 40 city blocks and 15 miles of roadway ditches.
Dogs appeared to have picked up his scent twice in the days and the disappearance, but the trail went cold each time.
Police also sent missing-person bulletins to every city that the Capels ever lived in.
"We're at a standstill. Our leads have dried up," Oxford Police Sgt. Jim Squance said.
Capel's wife, two daughters and three grandchildren have begun to fear the worst.
"We are at peace if he has passed away," said daughter Gail Capel Stephenoff of Hilliard in suburban Columbus. "That is a possibility. I won't give odds either way. We're just praying for some kind of resolution and closure."
For the 4.5 million Americans afflicted with Alzheimer's, wandering can be deadly behavior.
About six in 10 Alzheimer's patients will wander and become lost at some point during their illness, according to the Alzheimer's Association of Greater Cincinnati. The group says almost half of them die if not found within 24 hours.
His background
Charlie Capel attended the New York State College for Teachers in Albany and the University of Rochester before receiving a doctorate from Tulane University.
He taught at the University of Miami in the 1950s and later worked as a researcher at Westinghouse Research Labs in Pittsburgh.
He joined the math department at Miami University in 1960 and retired in 1993. After his retirement, he still kept regular office hours, created the department's first Web site and designed an online placement test for incoming freshmen.
"He made me feel welcomed," said professor Emily Murphree, who joined the faculty in 1982 and participated in the June 8 search.
"He would always stop by my office to say hi and talk about life, little things like that."
Oxford Mayor Jerome Conley said many of the people who searched for Capel didn't know him but understood the family's situation.
"Part of it was the tragedy of the story, but I heard a lot of people say that if the shoe were on the other foot -- if something like this happened to their family -- they'd like to know that they could count on the community's support."