Post by kms'missingadults on Dec 19, 2014 16:05:21 GMT -5
Linda and Gordon were worried about their son's future. They asked a social worker to evaluate him. He was diagnosed as a schizophrenic. It was recommended that he start living in a group home. Gordon Sr. said they decided to give it a try:
"We went to visit a group home and the lady said he can't stay there until he goes to see if he needs to be stabilized on medication in the hospital. So we did that. We finally agreed. And the doctor there put him on Ritalin and Valium. And Gordon wasn't Gordon after that."
Eventually, Gordie was accepted by a well-regarded group home. There, his medication was adjusted and he started to feel better. In September of 1989, with Gordie in good hands, his parents felt they could finally relocate to Florida as they long planned. Gordie stayed behind in Michigan.
For several months, things went well. But one day while heavily medicated, Gordie stole a truck that was left running in the driveway of the home. According to Detective Chet Bush, Jr. of the Kent County Sheriff's Department, Gordie was involved in a hit-and-run accident:
"We interviewed the lady who was the victim in the accident. She gave us a description which fit Gordon. Our officers then received another call, a call from one of our elementary schools that a person fitting Gordon Page's description was at this elementary school wanting to teach a class. So we responded there and at that time, picked up Mr. Gordon Page."
Gordie was sent to a county hospital. There, psychiatric social worker Bill Arnold evaluated him:
"He was brought in with a label of schizophrenia. People that are schizophrenic will, with medication, over a couple weeks, start to clear up in their thinking, and their behavior will come in line, and they start getting back more to normal. With Gordon, that didn't work."
After several months of intensive therapy, Bill realized that Gordie was not schizophrenic; he was autistic:
"Once we got him off all those medications and started treating him as possibly an autistic, and working on training and just giving him some respect, he was a totally different individual."
The Pages found a different group home in Grand Rapids, one that specialized in autism.
On May 22, 1991, Gordon Sr. shared an emotional goodbye with his son:
"We kind of stood there and talked and we hugged and talked a little bit more and then we walked over to the van. And I said, 'Everything's going to work out.'"
As his father started to drive away, Gordie broke away from the orderlies and began pounding on the van:
"It's very painful, now in retrospect. I wish I'd allowed him just to get in, crawl back, and just driven him home to Florida. But you don't think of those things, and we didn't know what we were going to be facing in the future."
Four days after his father left, Gordie disappeared. An eyewitness reported seeing Gordie hitchhiking toward Interstate 96. A search of the area turned up no leads and Gordie has not been seen since. Linda Page says she and Gordon Sr. just want Gordie back:
"We'll never stop looking for Gordie, because we love him. We've always been a close family. He would know that we want him back."
unsolved.com/archives/gordon-page-jr
www.facebook.com/pages/Where-is-Gordie/130388463644845?sk=timeline
"We went to visit a group home and the lady said he can't stay there until he goes to see if he needs to be stabilized on medication in the hospital. So we did that. We finally agreed. And the doctor there put him on Ritalin and Valium. And Gordon wasn't Gordon after that."
Eventually, Gordie was accepted by a well-regarded group home. There, his medication was adjusted and he started to feel better. In September of 1989, with Gordie in good hands, his parents felt they could finally relocate to Florida as they long planned. Gordie stayed behind in Michigan.
For several months, things went well. But one day while heavily medicated, Gordie stole a truck that was left running in the driveway of the home. According to Detective Chet Bush, Jr. of the Kent County Sheriff's Department, Gordie was involved in a hit-and-run accident:
"We interviewed the lady who was the victim in the accident. She gave us a description which fit Gordon. Our officers then received another call, a call from one of our elementary schools that a person fitting Gordon Page's description was at this elementary school wanting to teach a class. So we responded there and at that time, picked up Mr. Gordon Page."
Gordie was sent to a county hospital. There, psychiatric social worker Bill Arnold evaluated him:
"He was brought in with a label of schizophrenia. People that are schizophrenic will, with medication, over a couple weeks, start to clear up in their thinking, and their behavior will come in line, and they start getting back more to normal. With Gordon, that didn't work."
After several months of intensive therapy, Bill realized that Gordie was not schizophrenic; he was autistic:
"Once we got him off all those medications and started treating him as possibly an autistic, and working on training and just giving him some respect, he was a totally different individual."
The Pages found a different group home in Grand Rapids, one that specialized in autism.
On May 22, 1991, Gordon Sr. shared an emotional goodbye with his son:
"We kind of stood there and talked and we hugged and talked a little bit more and then we walked over to the van. And I said, 'Everything's going to work out.'"
As his father started to drive away, Gordie broke away from the orderlies and began pounding on the van:
"It's very painful, now in retrospect. I wish I'd allowed him just to get in, crawl back, and just driven him home to Florida. But you don't think of those things, and we didn't know what we were going to be facing in the future."
Four days after his father left, Gordie disappeared. An eyewitness reported seeing Gordie hitchhiking toward Interstate 96. A search of the area turned up no leads and Gordie has not been seen since. Linda Page says she and Gordon Sr. just want Gordie back:
"We'll never stop looking for Gordie, because we love him. We've always been a close family. He would know that we want him back."
unsolved.com/archives/gordon-page-jr
www.facebook.com/pages/Where-is-Gordie/130388463644845?sk=timeline