An elderly man got stuck in an elevator and his body was found weeks later

An elderly Denver man went missing on July 5. Isaak Komisarchik was last seen in a nursing home. He was wearing pajama bottoms and a gray and white striped shirt. His daughter said he stopped by the office after going to his mailbox. Nobody saw the 82-year-old man after that. Komisarchik started to show signs of dementia so when he disappeared officials immediately began looking for him. His disappearance baffled the authorities because he was not able to walk very far from the nursing home.

The search

People in Denver banded together to search for the missing man.

Fliers and posters were distributed throughout the city with the man's picture on them. Even though his disappearance was a total mystery to his family and officials, they did not give up searching for him.

Days passed and then the days turned into weeks. People began complaining about a smell that was coming from an apartment building less than a mile from the nursing home. On August 2, maintenance workers found Komisarchik's body in an Elevator in the apartment's parking garage. No one knows exactly how long he had been dead.

Police discovered that after he couldn't get out of the elevator, he did push the emergency bottom for help. A spokesperson for the Denver Fire Department said records show that the elevator's emergency button had been pushed twice over eight minutes.

Unfortunately, no one responded even though elevator operators are supposed to monitor emergency notifications around the clock, according to the city's regulations.

Who is to blame?

Denver Police said the elevator management company did receive an alarm from the elevator. The apartment building management was notified about the alert.

Two of three elevators were checked by apartment workers, but the third elevator was not checked. That's where the body was eventually found. That particular elevator had not been in use because of renovations in the area. Even so, the police and fire department are investigating to find out why the man's two calls for help went unanswered.

The family is still grieving and trying to come to terms with the tragic death. Family members have many unanswered questions, but what they all agree on is that the death could have been avoided if officials had responded to those two emergency calls from the elevator and if maintenance workers had checked that third elevator.

The investigation will not bring Komisarchik back, but it might prevent other families from going through a similar tragedy.