The mother of an Oakley man missing since August wants help locating her 52-year-old son. Douglas Todd Nelson was last seen leaving University Hospital in Salt Lake City.
“I’ve had no contact, no feedback, nothing,” said North Ogden resident Klea Nelson, the man’s mother. “What it tells me is that wherever he is, if he is still alive, he has got to be very sick or he would have called home.”
Nelson was struggling to stop drinking alcohol the day he was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance.
Her son was probably emotionally distraught when he left the hospital that night, Nelson said.
“I talked to him the morning he actually went to the hospital, not knowing he’d ever end up there,” Nelson said in a telephone interview. “The only thing I found out from the hospital is they determined he was stable enough to release him that evening. I guess he wasn’t able to find a way home because he went in the ambulance. From there, we don’t know.”
Nelson is Caucasian with dark hair and hazel eyes. He had a mustache when he went missing. Nelson is about 6 feet 1 inch tall and weighs about 225 pounds.
Summit County Sheriff’s Office Detective Ron Bridge said investigators have no leads as to Nelson’s whereabouts.
On Aug. 20, Nelson was at University Hospital for a psychological evaluation, according to Bridge.
He was reported missing Aug. 25, Bridge said.
“It’s still an open investigation, but we have exhausted all of our leads,” Bridge said.
The missing man contacted friends and family members before being released from the hospital.
“But nobody was really too willing to go pick him up and take him home because we knew he was there for help,” Klea Nelson said. “I’m sure he had depression and he did drink. I don’t know if you classify him as an alcoholic, but alcohol was oftentimes involved.”
Nelson spoke with a security guard in the parking lot before leaving the hospital, she explained.
“He was just frustrated about not having a ride and not knowing what to do,” Nelson said, adding that her son was spotted walking along Medical Drive in Salt Lake City.
In the past, his mother said Nelson had sought treatment for his alcohol dependency.
“He had struggled for quite a while, and I have known him to go to the hospital before for help going through detox,” Nelson said. “I’ve taken him to the hospital a number of times to get help.”
Nelson’s friend who called the ambulance said the man was suffering from hallucinations the day he checked himself into the hospital.
“I do know he hadn’t been drinking for a number of days,” Klea Nelson said.
Unfortunately, he had no health insurance, she added.
“He had no money and no credit cards with him,” Nelson said. “He could have gone up Emigration Canyon or maybe he struck up a friendship with somebody that he met, or caught a ride with a trucker out of state.”
She said her son moved to Oakley from the Ogden area while working for Wadman Corporation in Park City. But this year he lost his construction job.
Nelson, who is divorced, has three children and five grandchildren.
“We do know he wasn’t very well, that’s why he was in the hospital,” Nelson said. “He was struggling with some issues.”
Anyone with information about Nelson’s whereabouts should contact the Summit County Sheriff’s Office at (435) 615-3500.