Lanna Valenti just wants to know that her brother is safe.
Valenti's brother, John Horn, 44, hasn't been seen since he walked away from his Harrison apartment last February.
Horn, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, left without his medication.
“It's an empty feeling, I just wish I knew he was OK,” said Valenti, 30, of the older brother she helped care for. “If he doesn't want to be with us, that's fine.”
Valenti said Harrison police Chief Mike Klein reached out to her recently to see if she had heard form her bother.
“The police can't do much,”Valenti said. “He's a grown man; he's allowed to leave whenever he wants.
“It's such an awkward situation,” she said. “He's not a working man.
“He's not a normal functioning person.”
Klein could not be reached for comment for this story.
Valenti said she and her family and friends still search the street for Horn while they're out and about.
“People still ask about him all the time,“ she added. “We won't forget about him.”
Valenti said her brother often spoke about Florida.
“If he's alive, he's probably there,” she said.
Horn's disappearance just added to what has been a difficult few years for Valenti and her family.
“My mom (Bonnie) died in a car accident on Route 28 in June (2012). Then my husband, Rich, and I lost a baby that December — and then John went missing,” she said.
“We just wanted the best for him,” she said. “We're kind of emotionally numb at this point.
“It's an awful feeling because I look around half of my family is gone.”
Valenti now has a 2-month-old daughter, Veyda.
“We're so lucky to have her,” Valenti said. “Life is really crazy and weird.”
Valenti would like for her daughter to be able to meet her brother.
“If he's out there and reads this, I just want him to know he's more than welcome to come home at any point in time,” she said.
“We're just worried about him.“
R.A. Monti is a freelance reporter for Trib Total Media.
