LARGO — An 87-year-old man with dementia who recently immigrated from Greece has been missing for more than two weeks, and police are asking anyone with surveillance footage to review it again.
Petro Kuqo walked out of his apartment at The Pointe at Clearwater complex on Oak Trail West around 9 a.m. Dec. 12. He was wearing a gray pajama-style top, dark gray sweatpants and black Skechers shoes. He had no phone, no wallet, no identification and no money.
He hasn’t been seen since.
“He had gotten up and had his coffee, and while everyone else was still sleeping, he just walked out in his pajamas,” his granddaughter, Elena Mita, told reporters at a news conference. “That is really not normal.”
Kuqo is Albanian and does not speak English. He moved to Largo to be with more family members. He is unfamiliar with the area.
The family typically tracks Kuqo with an AirTag kept in his wallet. But because he left in his pajamas, he didn’t have it with him.
The Largo Police Department launched an exhaustive search that included grid searches on foot, bloodhounds from Pinellas and Pasco sheriff’s offices, drones with infrared cameras, helicopter flyovers, and boats and jet skis scanning nearby waterways.
Police canvassed apartment sheds, vehicles in parking lots and contacted local hospitals. They found nothing.
“When you have a missing person, it’s all a guessing game on where they could be,” Police Chief Mike Loux said at the news conference.
U.S. 19 runs along the east side of the complex, separated by concrete barriers. Wrought iron fencing lines the east and north sides. Thick brush, trees and a ravine border the west side — terrain that would be difficult for Kuqo to navigate given his slow, shuffling walk visible in the surveillance footage.
Police scaled back on-scene resources Dec. 19, saying they were confident that if Kuqo were in the immediate area, they would have found him. The investigation remains active.
“Because we haven’t found him, our hopes are extremely high that he’s found shelter somewhere,” Loux said.
After limited response to their initial plea, police issued another appeal Dec. 22. Loux asked residents to check not only surveillance and doorbell cameras but also dashcams. He urged delivery, rideshare and commercial drivers who may have been in the area to review their footage.
In a Facebook post the day after Christmas, Mita described the toll on her family.
“Nothing about this holiday has felt like Christmas,” she wrote. “The uncertainty is something I wouldn’t wish on anyone. We feel stuck in time, waiting for answers that just haven’t come yet.”
Kuqo is described as 5 feet 3 inches tall and about 165 pounds with brown eyes and gray hair.
Mita urged residents across Pinellas County — not just in Largo — to check their cameras.
“It only takes one person to recognize him, remember something, or connect a piece of information that hasn’t surfaced yet,” she wrote.
Anyone with information should call the Largo Police Department at 727-587-6730.