{"id":941722,"date":"2026-07-17T19:30:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T19:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/941722\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T19:30:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T19:30:15","slug":"family-questions-jacksonville-assisted-living-facility-after-man-with-dementia-found-dead-in-woods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/941722\/","title":{"rendered":"Family questions Jacksonville assisted living facility after man with dementia found dead in woods"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 On July 7, a 70-year-old Jacksonville man with dementia wandered from an assisted living facility and was found dead in nearby woods. His family is now questioning whether staff acted quickly enough to save him.<\/p>\n

His family says critical warning signs were missed.<\/p>\n

Victor Montano was reported missing to the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office on the morning of July 7. He was later found dead, and investigators say no foul play is suspected.<\/p>\n

But his niece, Melissa Pais, who also served as his healthcare proxy, says the way the facility handled the situation has left her with serious questions.<\/p>\n

According to a JSO incident report, officers were dispatched to Westchester Assisted Living in the Baymeadows area around 7:30 a.m. after staff reported Montano missing.<\/p>\n

Staff told officers the last time Montano was seen was around 12:45 a.m., after he was involved in an incident in which a trash bin caught fire. <\/p>\n

Once that was handled, JSO said staff told them they did not notice he was gone until around 7:30 a.m., nearly seven hours later.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe kept to himself. Very, almost innocent and adolescent,\u201d Pais said about her uncle.<\/p>\n

Around 2:50 p.m., Jacksonville Fire Rescue\u2019s K9 team found him in a wooded area just south of the facility, near a fence line. He was pronounced dead at the scene.<\/p>\n

Pais said she was devastated by the news.<\/p>\n

\u201cLoved the New York Mets, even when they lost. Loved a good cup of coffee,\u201d Pais continued.<\/p>\n

Victor Montano (Melissa Pais)<\/p>\n

But Pais says as she learned what happened, she started asking questions about how it all unfolded.<\/p>\n

She says she got a message about the fire incident earlier that morning, but not that he was missing.<\/p>\n

Pais shared the messages with News4JAX. The first text she received came at 5:39 a.m. from someone at the facility.<\/p>\n

It said they needed to talk and mentioned the fire but ended with \u201che needs immediate placement elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

After asking some questions, the staff member says at 6 a.m.: <\/p>\n

\u201cHe walked off and I haven\u2019t been able to interview him yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minutes later, the staff member restated, \u201cFirst and foremost, we do need placement, so we will need an update on that since his 45 days already expired.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then at 7:45 a.m., they said he had not been found and police were called, adding, \u201cI think he saw what he did and took off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he was found in the woods,\u201d Pais said, pausing to process the emotion, \u201cHours later.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is just not what I was expecting. I moved him here, hoping he would be safe,\u201d Pais continued.<\/p>\n

News4JAX reached out to the facility to ask about its policies and what happened. <\/p>\n

A staff member cited HIPAA and declined to answer any questions, including general policy questions, before hanging up.<\/p>\n

A written message sent through the facility\u2019s website returned an error. A follow-up message sent via Facebook had not received a response as of publication.<\/p>\n

What News4JAX also found was a state inspection report from October 2025 that cited the facility for not maintaining documentation showing it completed the required number of resident elopement response drills, drills to respond when a resident goes missing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd had I known this I wouldn\u2019t have chosen here,\u201d Pais said. \u201cAnd I would have worked harder to get him out sooner. But I\u2019ll have to live with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 On July 7, a 70-year-old Jacksonville man with dementia wandered from an assisted living facility…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":941723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,46242,3188,723,7310,8423,11116,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-941722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-america","tag-assisted-living","tag-fl","tag-florida","tag-jacksonville","tag-jso","tag-missing-man","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116936981115162066","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=941722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/941723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=941722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=941722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=941722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}