85-year-old found safe

An 85-year-old man who wandered away from a Tucumcari hotel the evening of Aug. 6 and became the subject of a Silver Alert was found safe Wednesday afternoon.

Jim Swick walked away from the La Quinta Inn in Tucumcari. An emergency radio message that night said Swick was suffering from dementia. It was believed he was trying to get to Surprise, Arizona.

New Mexico State Police announced shortly after noon Wednesday the Silver Alert had been canceled. A dispatcher at the Tucumcari/Quay Regional Emergency Communications Center said Swick’s son had called from Arizona, saying his father had been found safe there.

A Silver Alert is a notification about a missing person who is 50 years or older who “has an irreversible deterioration of intellectual faculties,” according to the New Mexico Department of Public Safety.