In this age, when communication has grown to such a level, an adult can get lost if he is…

A mentally disabled man who wandered away from a South Richmond assisted-living facility six weeks ago has turned up in Rockville, Md., the man’s family said yesterday.

“I don’t know how he got there, and neither does he,” said the man’s sister, Midlothian resident Lisa Dameron. “But the people [in Maryland] say he is smiling ear to ear and wants to come home.”

Dameron said an early morning call from Richmond police yesterday ended weeks of frustration for her. She handed out more than 150 missing-person fliers and contacted shelters across Virginia.

“There needs to be something done with Virginia law that makes it almost impossible to keep track of people with mental illness unless they are a threat to themselves or someone else,” Dameron said.

Her brother, Richard William Boswell, 53, a paranoid schizophrenic, had been a resident of The Manor at Woodland Heights for about seven months, Dameron said. While he has had a serious mental condition and has been in and out of treatment facilities for more than 30 years, he was still allowed to come and go, she said.

“We’ve been praying for that man every day and we are truly blessed that our prayers have been answered,” said Lillie Turner, who identified herself yesterday as the administrator of the facility in the 300 block of West 30th Street. The home cares for about 60 residents.

An investigation of the incident is ongoing, according to a representative of the state Department of Social Services, which regulates assisted-living homes. Such investigations, which are not made public, are routinely done when a resident is missing.

Today the Senate Committee on Education and Health at the General Assembly is scheduled to take up legislation that would mandate outpatient care without requiring that a person be a danger to himself or others. Another bill before the Senate Courts of Justice Committee would also lessen the danger standard for a person to receive care through an assisted outpatient-treatment program.

Dameron said yesterday that her brother was able to identify himself at a shelter in Maryland where he appeared but that it took as long as 10 days before authorities were able to determine how to reach his family or police in Richmond. Dameron said police had issued a missing-person bulletin for Boswell weeks ago.

“I’m just glad that I did as much as I did to notify people that he was missing. Eventually, someone was able to make a connection,” she said. “We were afraid he would end up dead in the woods or in the river.”

She said her brother may have panhandled for bus fare or merely received a ride, but his condition would have quickly deteriorated without medication.

A resident of an assisted-living facility in McKenney in Dinwiddie County south of Petersburg remained unaccounted for yesterday. Richard Lane, 22, has been missing since the first of the year.

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