Samantha Denise Primus Missing
Police are looking for a 47-year-old woman with developmental disabilities who went missing last Friday from her Long Island home.
The family of Samantha Denise Primus, who was last seen around 3:30 a.m. on December 23 at a home in Elmont, filed a missing persons report, according to Nassau County Police.
Primus usually lives with her mother and never leaves the house without a family member.
Primus, who is deaf, mute, and has limited sign language abilities, had been staying with her sister Joanna Peck and her family in Elmont for a few days when she walked out.
Primus left the house between 4 and 5 a.m. on December 23rd, according to her family.
Primus was discovered around 8 p.m. that night at 190th Street and Hillside Avenue in Queens, about three and a half miles from his home.
A paramedic who saw a missing flyer would later recall responding to a call for assistance and transporting her to Queens Hospital Center that evening.
According to NYPD officials, Primus was released from the hospital shortly before 2 a.m. on Saturday.
According to her family, hospital staff mistook her for homeless and directed her to local shelters.
“They assumed she was homeless, so they gave her a list of shelters to check out,” Peck explained. “Someone who is not verbal. She is illiterate. I mean, she can’t read, she’s not verbal, and she has no idea how to use the system. The buses or other modes of public transportation. “How could you abandon her?”
Primus hasn’t been seen in a long time.
“She’ll be walking out there for another five days. She hasn’t eaten anything. “She hasn’t taken a shower,” Peck pointed out.
She claims that if the hospital had made a few phone calls to confirm that the same woman had been reported missing in Nassau County, all of this could have been avoided.
“They were attempting to backtrack and say, well, the date of birth is different,” Peck explained. “We had a non-verbal mute with the same description but the only thig that differs is the date of birth. We said she couldn’t have given you her date of birth because she doesn’t know her own.”
New York City Health + Hospitals cites patient confidentiality in response to Eyewitness News’ questions about why Primus was released.
The Nassau County Police Department was notified that Primus had been found after the paramedic who assisted her saw the missing report and informed the authorities that she had been taken to Queens Hospital.
According to the family, Nassau Police notified them that Primus had been found and was in a hospital, but by the time the family arrived at Queens Hospital, she had been discharged.
Primus is 5’3″ and 130 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair. She was last seen wearing a navy coat, a pink hoodie, blue jeans, and black sneakers.
Her family is urging anyone who sees her to contact the authorities immediately.
“She comes from a loving family. She is well-liked. “All we need is for her to return home,” Peck said.
WABC
