WJZ.com Helps Daughter Find Missing Father

WJZ.com Helps Daughter Find Missing Father

BALTIMORE, Jan. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Holiday heartbreak is over for one Maryland woman after her father, who had been missing for 12 days, was found thanks to a persistent North Carolina doctor and her story on WJZ.com, the website of WJZ-TV 13, the CBS Television Station in Baltimore.

Gilberto Feliciano boarded a bus bound for Baltimore from Miami on December 15, but along the way something went wrong, and the 64-year-old -- who suffers from Alzheimer's disease -- never made it to Baltimore.

The next 12 days were a nightmare for his daughter, Lorah Proffitt, who pleaded for help to find him.

"We were very worried and concerned, and as days went on it became hard for us," Proffitt tells WJZ's Sharon Lee.

During a bus change in North Carolina, Feliciano was beaten and mugged.

"Somebody was trying to take this jacket from him, and he was trying to hold on to it, and then came the hit," says Proffitt, an Anne Arundel County resident.

Feliciano couldn't remember anything after the attack and ended up in a hospital. Meanwhile, back in Baltimore, Proffitt shared her story of her missing father with WJZ reporter Kathryn Brown, and that story and video was then placed on WJZ.com.

An intern at the hospital decided to do a Google search when Feliciano was admitted, and he discovered the video on WJZ.com, thereby learning how Proffitt was searching for her missing father.

"That was the sole reason that the intern in North Carolina could connect the two of us," says Proffitt.

Once Feliciano was found, he was joined in the North Carolina hospital by his family, who celebrated Christmas there with him. He says it was the best Christmas he could ever ask for.

Now Feliciano is in Maryland, finally home with his daughter, though he still bears the scar on his head from the beating.

"I just love life and I love this beautiful human being over here," he says of his daughter.

Says Proffitt, "I just really want to thank WJZ for airing that story."

Source: WJZ-TV CBS BALTIMORE

CONTACT: Liz Chuday, +1-410-464-1100, for WJZ-TV

Web site: http://www.wjz.com/

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