Woman wanders off, later found dead in Freeport canal

Arlena Richardson had always been a loving mother and a doting grandmother, but in recent years, she was slipping.

She forgot names and faces and, after moving in with family on Long Island two months ago, once left home at night and became lost walking the streets, her family said.

Sometime between 9:30 p.m. Saturday and 1 a.m. Sunday, Richardson again wandered away, Nassau police said. Ten hours after her family realized she was missing, Richardson, 76, was pronounced dead in a nearby Freeport canal about 10:40 a.m. Sunday, Nassau police said.

Investigators ruled the death an accident but it is unclear how she ended in the canal.

For Richardson's family, the apparent drowning represented a tragic end to a full life. A North Carolina native who worked as an operator for New York Telephone for three decades, Richardson had eight children and 10 grandchildren, and friends in two states.

"She will be missed by many, many people," her daughter-in-law Nicole Richardson, 40, of Freeport, said Sunday.

The day before her death, Richardson passed the afternoon and evening doing what she loved: spending time with family. She watched her grandson Christopher, 9, play at a basketball clinic before eating dinner with a gathering of children and grandchildren at Friendly's in Baldwin.

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"She was an upbeat person who loved her kids and grandkids," said her son Chris Richardson, 39, who was playing host to his mother at his Westside Avenue home for the weekend. "She was loved."

She had been living with another son, Kelvin Richardson, in Uniondale for the past two months, moving back to Long Island from her childhood home of Warrenton, N.C. She lived in the New York City area from 1955 to 1992, spending 11 years in Bohemia, where several of her children went to school. Her husband of 34 years, Daniel Richardson, died in 1991.

After dinner on Saturday, Arlena Richardson changed into her burgundy pajamas with white polka dots and got ready for bed, but her family noticed she was not in her room at 1 a.m. She had done this before but never wandered far, her son said.

The family said they called police and took to the streets, searching each block and calling out Richardson's name. Sunday morning, Nassau police issued a Silver Alert, telling the media, hospitals and the public in Freeport about Richardson, with a picture and description.

Workers received the automated call at Sea Isle Sports Center, a sport fishing store at 495 Guy Lombardo Ave., about a 15-minute walk from Richardson's son's house. About 30 minutes later, a man who maintains his boat in a slip behind the store on Sportsman Canal ran inside.

"He says there's a body right at the dock," said John Bussman, a store worker. Another employee called police, reporting an elderly woman in polka-dot pajamas in the water.