Katrina survivor missing in Utah, family asks for help


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SOUTH SALT LAKE — Police are asking for help locating a man displaced by Hurricane Katrina who lives in Utah but hasn't been seen in months.

Curtis Crosby was among those brought to Utah after the deadly hurricane hit his home in 2005. He started a new life in South Salt Lake helping others who, like him, had been displaced by the storm, and was featured in a 2010 Deseret News article about Katrina survivors living in Utah. He hasn't been seen in five months.

Crosby was last seen in October when Unified police officers encountered him camping in a vacant office building in Millcreek, 3949 S. 700 East, though he still had an apartment about five blocks away in South Salt Lake at the time.

The next day, a manager from the office building told police Crosby was gone but had left his belongings behind. Officers returned Crosby's belongings to his apartment, 188 E. Helm Ave. He has no known medical or psychological conditions that would lead him to change his routines and lose contact with family members, police say.

"Why would this guy go missing? We have no idea," said South Salt Lake police spokesman Gary Keller. "There's no reason to list him as endangered. He's just out there and unaccounted for."

Crosby was reported as a missing person in December after he didn't make his annual holiday calls to friends and family. His daughter travelled to Salt Lake City from New Orleans over the weekend to search for her father, checking homeless shelters and hospitals.

Jasmine Crosby, his daughter, said her father has never been materialistic, willing to give up whatever he had to help someone else. He has always remained close with his family.

"He'll give you the clothes off his back and the food off his plate," she said.


He'll give you the clothes off his back and the food off his plate.

–Jasmine Crosby, Curtis Crosby's daughter


Neighbors have told the Crosby family that prior to his disappearance, they would sometimes have to walk him back to his home because he couldn't seem to remember where it was. Relatives are concerned a medical incident may have impacted his mind, or that he could be experiencing early stages of dementia.

"It's something that has triggered his mind, for him not to be able to remember what's going on around him or what's happening," Jasmine Crosby said. "We just want to find him so that we can get him home and get him some help."

Curtis Crosby is 60 years old, a 5-foot-9 black man with brown eyes, a balding or shaved head, and possibly with a black-and-gray mustache and goatee.

Anyone with information on Curtis Crosby or his whereabouts is asked to contact South Salt Lake police at 801-840-4000. All calls are confidential and callers can remain anonymous.

Contributing: Jed Boal

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