Nearly two decades after Lottie Albertha Wise vanished from her daughter’s home in Florida, her disappearance remains an enduring mystery that haunts her family and puzzles authorities. The 91-year-old, who suffered from advanced Alzheimer’s disease, stepped out of her residence on Venus Drive in Titusville on the evening of January 10, 2006, and was never seen again—leaving behind a void that time has yet to fill.
Wise, a petite woman standing 5’4” and weighing 130 pounds, was last spotted at 9:25 p.m. that fateful night. She wore a brown zip-up jacket adorned with a beige leaf design, a white blouse, green pants, and tan shoes, her graying black hair styled in braids. Living with her daughter after moving from her own home six months prior, Wise walked out the front door while her daughter showered. An alarm triggered by the door’s opening alerted her daughter, who quickly dressed and searched outside, but Wise was gone. Police were notified shortly after, launching an extensive hunt that yielded no trace of the elderly woman.
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Born in Titusville on November 8, 1914, Wise spent much of her life in New Jersey, where she worked as a welder for a canning company during the 1940s. She raised a family, including a son still residing in New Jersey, and returned to her birthplace later in life. Described by her daughter as a gentle soul who loved fishing, playing the piano, watching game shows, and staying active in her church, Wise’s advanced Alzheimer’s left her vulnerable. Without her medication or purse, and prone to confusion, her condition heightened fears for her safety.
The search effort in 2006 scoured the area around her home, located just a mile east of Interstate 95, but turned up no clues. Authorities speculated that Wise, disoriented by her illness, might not have sought help, complicating efforts to locate her. Despite community searches—like one organized by family and friends on February 18, 2006, starting at 2715 Venus Drive—no evidence emerged to explain her fate.
Her family has grappled with the unknown ever since. In 2014, her granddaughter Gina Wilson Beckles told Florida Today that each report of a body found in the state sparked hope and dread: “Could that be her?” Wise’s eldest son, Alfonso “Jack” Wilson, passed away in 2013, still mourning his mother. That year, the family moved to have Wise, who would now be 110, legally declared dead, though closure remains elusive without answers.
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The case echoes other missing persons mysteries in Brevard County, but Wise’s stands out for its poignancy—an elderly woman, lost to a disease that robbed her of clarity, slipping away into the night. Titusville police revisited the case in 2021, excavating a vacant lot on DeLeon Avenue for an unrelated 15-year-old disappearance, but no new leads on Wise have surfaced. Her classification as “endangered missing” endures, a testament to the fragility of her situation and the urgency that once drove the search.
As the years stretch on, Wise’s story lingers as a call for vigilance and a reminder of Alzheimer’s toll. Her family holds onto memories of a woman who welded steel and played hymns, while investigators keep her file open, hoping one day to unravel what happened after she stepped out that January door. For now, Lottie Albertha Wise remains a name etched in Titusville’s unresolved past, her whereabouts a question mark that refuses to fade.
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