Oct. 27 (UPI) -- Police found a woman who went missing four decades ago in a New York care facility -- unable to explain her disappearance.
The Sullivan County Sheriff's Office said deputies found Flora Harris after skeletal remains were found that investigators believed might fit the missing woman's profile.
Det. Rich Morgan began looking for living relatives of Harris, who was 36 at the time of her disappearance on Aug. 3, 1975. She went missing after she was dropped off at a doctor's office by her husband.
A break in the case came when a search of federal, state and local databases found someone using the social security number of a woman named Flora Stevens in Massachusetts.
Morgan and Det. Ed Clouse subsequently found Harris at the New York facility -- and said they soon learned that Stevens and Harris were the same woman.
The detectives said Harris, who's been diagnosed with dementia, "lit up immediately" when they showed her an old employee photo of Stevens -- and told them, "Me!"
"The main thing is that we know that Flora is safe," Sullivan County Sheriff Mike Schiff said.
Harris, 78, had previously spent time in a New Hampshire facility and at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital in New York City. Because of her dementia, though, officials said it remains a mystery how and why she disappeared.
No living relatives have yet been found.
