Burlington police seek missing 84-year-old man with dementia

Burlington police spent Thursday asking neighbors for help finding 84-year-old Alvin “Al” Johnathan Jeffers, a Burlington man with dementia who was reported missing and believed to be endangered.

Officers said Jeffers, who is Black, was about 5 feet 10 inches tall and roughly 160 pounds. He was last seen in the 2500 block of Oakcrest Court wearing all blue clothing. Police said he was believed to be on foot, and that his direction of travel and destination were unknown. Anyone with information was told to call 911, the Burlington Police Department Communications Center or Alamance County-Wide Crime Stoppers.

The urgency of the search triggered a Silver Alert, the state system used for missing older adults who may be endangered because of conditions such as dementia. North Carolina formally established the Silver Alert program in 2007, and the N.C. Center for Missing Persons runs it in cooperation with law enforcement, broadcasters and the state Department of Transportation to quickly spread descriptive information that may help locate a missing person.

By later Thursday, the case had shifted sharply. WXII reported that Jeffers had been found dead and that Burlington police had opened a death investigation. The state’s Silver Alert page shows the alert for Alvin Jonathan Jeffers was cancelled at 4:03 p.m. Thursday, May 28, at the request of the Burlington Police Department.

A repost of the original report said Jeffers was located at about 3:45 p.m. Thursday, giving the search a tightly compressed timeline from public alert to cancellation. Police have not said what caused his death, where he was found or whether any outside factor was involved.

For Burlington and the surrounding Alamance County community, the case leaves the most important questions focused on accountability and timing: when Jeffers was reported missing, how quickly the alert reached the public and what investigators will determine next about how he died. The search began as an urgent effort to find a vulnerable elder on familiar streets near Oakcrest Court, then ended as a formal inquiry into a death that remains under investigation.