The 1600 block of Molitor Road in Belmont, Calif.
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The remains of a Bay Area man who went missing on his evening walk in 2019 have been found, police said.
Paul Farmer, who was 84 when he disappeared, left his home on the 1600 block of Molitor Road in Belmont on Aug. 26, 2019. When he did not return as expected, family members immediately reported him missing as Farmer had a medical condition that resulted in memory loss.
“Over the course of the next three years, multiple searches were conducted, and dozens of tips were investigated,” Belmont police wrote in a statement Friday.
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One of those tips came from a witness who believed they saw Farmer walking near Ralston Avenue and Highway 92 the morning after he went missing; it was over three and a half miles from his home. More searching yielded no clues until March 2023, when someone found Farmer’s identification card in a waterway in San Mateo. Investigators went upstream from the discovery to a “heavily forested area” south of Highway 92 and Hillsdale Blvd.
In conjunction with search-and-rescue teams, Belmont investigators searched the area. On June 25, they found human remains. Those remains were recently identified as belonging to Farmer.
“Although we are deeply saddened by this tragic case, we are very thankful for the agencies that assisted us with locating Mr. Farmer and helping us bring closure to this investigation,” Belmont police said.