Missing
Rosemary Cosgrove
Cosgrove, approximately 2003
Date and time person was reported missing : 03/18/2003
Missing location (approx) :
Manhattan, New York
Missing classification : Endangered Missing
Gender : Female
Ethnicity :
White
Age at the time of disappearance: 51 years old
Height / Weight : 5'6, 120 pounds
Description, clothing, jewerly and more : A dark-colored peacoat.
Medical conditions : Cosgrove suffers from a rare degenerative brain condition called frontotemporal dementia or Pick's Disease. It's characterized by personality changes, poor judgement, forgetfulness, social ineptitude and dementia. Many Pick's Disease symptoms are similar to those of Alzheimer's Disease. The illness, which renders its victims vulnerable to opportunistic infections, is incurable and generally causes death within 10 years of onset.
Distinguishing characteristics, birthmarks, tattoos
: Caucasian female. Dark brown hair, brown eyes.
Information on the case from local sources, may or may not be correct : Cosgrove traveled from her home in Edinburgh, Scotland to New York City in March 2003 to see the St. Patrick's Day parade. Her family members advised her not to go because of her illness, but she went anyway. She arrived at Newark International Airport in Newark, New Jersey on March 13 and checked into the Belvedere Hotel on west 48th Street in the borough of Manhattan.
Cosgrove lost her travel bag, which contained her passport and return plane ticket, the same day she arrived in the United States. She was disoriented and confused throughout her stay, forgetting the name of her hotel and once going to the wrong hotel.
Cosgrove was last seen leaving the Belvedere Hotel on March 18; she planned to go to the airport and report the loss of her bag. She never got on her return flight to Scotland and has never been heard from again. Her family reported her as a missing person on March 21, the day she was supposed to have arrived home.
Cosgrove used a credit card to check into the Belvedere Hotel, but the card has not been used since she disappeared and no money has been withdrawn from her bank account. She is believed to have been carrying about $600 in cash when she went missing. She left some of her belongings behind at her hotel room, but the items contained no clues as to her whereabouts.
Eight months after Cosgrove's disappearance, her missing passport was mailed from the British embassy in Washington, D.C. to a passport office in Peterborough, England. They forwarded it to Cosgrove's home in Scotland. Authorities do not know who found the passport initially or where it was found.
Foul play is not suspected in Cosgrove's disappearance, but her fate is unclear. Her family in the United Kingdom believes she may be homeless or deceased.
Other information and links : ncy
New York Police Department
212-473-2042
September 2021 updates and sources
North American Missing Persons Network
Newsday
The Herald
The Edinburgh Evening News
October 12, 2004. April 7, 2006; .
Interactive Missing Person Search Map
