{"id":795842,"date":"2026-07-12T16:58:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T16:58:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/795842\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T16:58:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T16:58:15","slug":"elderly-runaway-melbourne-couple-spark-major-police-search","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/795842\/","title":{"rendered":"Elderly runaway Melbourne couple spark major police search"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Marta<\/p>\n

Updated July 12, 2026 \u2014 8:45pm,first published 6:56pm<\/p>\n

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An elderly husband and wife who sparked a major police search after running away from their nursing home have been found 170 kilometres away from Melbourne.<\/p>\n

Victoria Police shared the news just before 8pm on Sunday. The couple were found in Maryborough, 58 kilometres north of Ballarat in the Central Goldfields.<\/p>\n

\"ElderlyElderly couple Colin and Claudette have been located. Victoria Police<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are pleased to advise that missing Wheelers Hill couple Colin and Claudette have been located safe and well in the Maryborough area,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Sunday, Colin and Claudette\u2019s family said the couple had been recently placed in respite care and may have left their accommodation in order to be together.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t really like being in care,\u201d daughter Linda McKelvie told reporters. \u201cThey just want to be together and be at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police acting inspector Luke McDonald said the couple checked themselves out of their nursing home near Ferntree Gully Road in Wheelers Hill on Saturday morning before travelling to The Glen and Brandon Park shopping centres.<\/p>\n

There, they visited a pharmacy, filled out some prescriptions and sat down for a cup of coffee at their favourite cafe.<\/p>\n

\"ColinColin and Claudette\u2019s daughter Linda McKelvie addresses the media in Glen Waverley on Sunday. Luis Enrique Ascui<\/p>\n

Their 2015 Mazda2 with registration 1ER8FK was later seen travelling west on the Monash Freeway about 5.30pm. That was the last sighting of the pair, whose surnames were not given by police, before they were found more than 24 hours later.<\/p>\n

The couple had also tried to leave the facility earlier in the week, but they were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

On Sunday afternoon, McKelvie said the couple\u2019s behaviour was very unusual.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve been uncontactable by phone, and it\u2019s just so extremely out of character for them. We are just really worried and want to make sure they\u2019re OK,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Claudette, 83, is recovering from several fractures after a series of recent falls and uses a wheelchair. She is on daily medication for high blood pressure and a condition that causes her to fall unconscious for about 20 minutes at a time.<\/p>\n

She was also recently diagnosed with vascular dementia, a condition that causes a decline in thinking and reasoning skills due to reduced blow flow to the brain.<\/p>\n

Colin, 89, is fairly fit and active for his age, but was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s. He experiences short-term memory loss and can become disoriented.<\/p>\n

The family first noticed the couple had gone missing on Saturday evening after neighbour and close friend Sharon Jeikishor went to check their Glen Waverley house and found it silent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were no lights on. I knocked a couple of times, no response,\u201d Jeikishor said.<\/p>\n

The couple has been together for 65 years after meeting at a dance. According to their neighbour, Colin saw Claudette from the other side of the room and asked her for a spin around the dance floor, and the rest is history.<\/p>\n

\"CCTVCCTV footage shows Colin pushing Claudette in a wheelchair at The Glen shopping centre in Glen Waverley on Saturday.Victoria Police.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing they wouldn\u2019t do for each other; they\u2019re their ride or die,\u201d Jeikishor said.<\/p>\n

The couple have four great-granddaughters, with a fifth due to join the family soon.<\/p>\n

McKelvie said Claudette, who used to work as a typist at The Alfred hospital, is a social butterfly who loves a joke and a good laugh, while her father loves to play table tennis and tell stories.<\/p>\n

The 89-year-old was in the air force before he took on a role with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority investigating small plane crashes.<\/p>\n

\u201cMum is very cheeky,\u201d McKelvie said. \u201cDad is more serious, but he is a very lovely, kindhearted person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"MartaMarta Pascual Juanola<\/a> is an investigative journalist at The Age. Before that, she was a crime and justice reporter. You can contact her securely via m.pascualjuanola@proton.me or Signal on +61 468 688 436.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated July 12, 2026 \u2014 8:45pm,first published 6:56pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":795843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-795842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}