A missing 87-year-old Texas man, who unknowingly drove more than 300 miles to St. Charles Parish, was reunited with his family thanks to office personnel at Norco Elementary School.
Gerald Zeringue was last seen by his family in Baytown, Texas at 6 a.m. on Dec. 7. Zeringue’s family had gone to church and returned to find Zeringue missing. A Silver Alert was issued for Zeringue, who had been diagnosed with a cognitive impairment.
Three hundred miles away on Monday, Dec. 8, Zeringue walked into Norco Elementary School. Front office personnel greeted Zeringue, who seemed unsure about what he was doing at the school. Zeringue eventually said he was told to wait at the school and that someone was coming to pick him up.
After a few minutes, school employees realized that Zeringue was confused. Because Zeringue is a common last name in Norco, they began calling families in the area, thinking that Zeringue was visiting for the holidays and had walked away from a nearby home.
However, Zeringue lit up when he noticed the school’s Christmas decorations.
“He told us how much he liked the decorations and said he was born on Christmas day, but in order to get him to show me his ID I jokingly said I didn’t believe him,” Shelly Babineaux, school office specialist at Norco Elementary, said. “He gave me his ID, which was from Texas. He also had a business card and a debit card.”
Sandy David, another office specialist, used the business card to contact Zeringue’s son, who told her his father had disappeared from Baytown the day before.
“He kinda chuckled and said they had been looking for him,” David said. “When his son told me that [Zeringue] lives in Texas, we were all thinking, ‘what?!’”
Zeringue’s family had been monitoring his credit card, which was last used in Baton Rouge to get gas at 4 a.m. that morning.
It appears Zeringue was retracing some of his history. He attended LSU and even lived in Destrehan for a period of time.
“They were so happy that he was found safe,” Babineaux said. “He looked so tired. He had been driving for so long.”
Babineaux and the entire staff at Norco Elementary doted on Zeringue during his time at the school.
“He was a character and he was so funny,” Babineaux said. “The family told us that we were his angels, but he was our Christmas miracle. I couldn’t believe that he had gotten here all the way from Texas and happened to walk into Norco Elementary. It really was a miracle.”
David agreed, saying she never imagined she would one day help reunite a missing man with his family.
“It was unbelievable that he got here all by himself,” David said. “It was pretty much a miracle in my eyes.”
Zeringue was reunited with his family after a relative in Gonzales picked him up. Zeringue’s son later drove to Gonzales to bring his father home.
To thank the Norco staff for their help, Zeringue’s family sent flowers to the school. The card was signed, “From your Christmas miracle.”
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