Man missing from care center shows up in sheriff's yard

Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2006

By Marcie Young
Charlotte Observer
Staff Writer

A missing man wandered into the Burke County sheriff's yard Monday as deputies searched for him nearby.

Officers began looking for Calvin Lowery, 56, of Mecklenburg County not long after he disappeared Sunday evening from Morganton's McAlpine Adult Care Center, a psychiatric facility where he was being treated, said Sheriff John McDevitt.

McDevitt joined the search Monday morning and went home to change clothes around 3 p.m. He had been home only a few minutes, he said, when his daughter told him there was a strange man in the driveway.

McDevitt said he instructed Lowery to stop approaching the house and lie down. When Lowery ignored the sheriff's commands, McDevitt said he used pepper spray to subdue him.

"He's from Charlotte, so he didn't know who I am," McDevitt said. "For him to show up at my house is kind of unusual."

Lowery was uninjured, McDevitt said.

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