Augusta police are searching for a 72-year-old man, Donald DuPerre, who walked away from a home on Boothby Street around 9 a.m. Friday and is in the early stages of dementia.

As of early Friday afternoon, police still were looking for DuPerre and issued a Silver Alert, which sends alerts about missing senior citizens to highway signs around the state.

Early Friday afternoon, police indicated DuPerre might be in Scarborough or Old Orchard Beach, but later they said it’s possible he was somewhere else.

DuPerre “is not from the area and does not know anyone besides his sister,” according to the original post at 11:46 a.m. on the Augusta Police Department’s Facebook page. “He may be attempting to get a flight back to Florida. He was carrying two green, vinyl suitcases and wearing a blue, lightweight coat, blue ‘Trump’ baseball cap, blue jeans and tan sneakers.”

Later in the day, Augusta police posted an update on DuPerre’s potential whereabouts. They said he might have been dropped off by a taxi in the vicinity of Old Orchard Beach or Scarborough.

“Mr. DuPerre was dropped off at Mr. Bill’s Seafood and Pizza on Saco Ave. in Old Orchard Beach and was last seen hitch hiking,” police wrote at 2:02 p.m. on Twitter.

Later in the afternoon, they issued the Silver Alert. Unlike the Amber Alert system — which is designed to help police locate potentially abducted children and which Augusta police triggered last fall — Silver Alerts do not send messages out to cellphones in Maine, said Sgt. Christian Behr, of the Augusta Police Department. Besides connecting to highway billboards, the Silver Alert system also connects to a network of lottery machines around the state.

Augusta police have asked anyone who has seen DuPerre to call Officer Donald Whitten at the Augusta Police Department at 626-2370.

Charles Eichacker — 621-5642

ceichacker@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @ceichacker