Scores of residents and visitors yesterday joined in the search for tourist William Grange, who has been missing for more than four days.

The 67-year-old retired lawyer from Ontario, Canada, disappeared last Friday night from the Cambridge Beaches resort in Sandys where he and his wife were staying during a five-day Bermuda vacation.

He had decided to go for a late night walk around the grounds of the picturesque waterside property, lost his bearings and “didn’t remember how to come back”.

Mr Grange suffers from short-term memory loss and his family have expressed concern for his safety, claiming that he could be “scared and disorientated”.

He also needs to take medication for his condition, and police have now classified the search as high-priority.

Yesterday morning Cambridge Beaches staff, lead by resort manager Richard Quinn, began a search of the nearby abandoned 9 Beaches resort in the hope of tracking down Mr Grange.

They were joined by around 20 residents and resort guests who had volunteered to help in the search.

A further 20 police officers and a number of police sniffer dogs also scoured the area.

“A decision was made last night to try and do something,” Mr Quinn said.

“We have no idea where Mr Grange is — he could be anywhere on the Island — but we have to do something.

“So at the moment we’re just trying to knock out big parcels of land because we don’t know where he is.

“We’re going to have to go around knocking on doors and asking neighbours if they’ve seen anything.”

Mr Quin said that staff had carried out a thorough search of the Cambridge Beaches property in previous days, but found no evidence of the guest.

And he praised the community for coming together to help the stricken visitor and his family.

“The response from the public has been phenomenal and we’ve also had some guests volunteer which is great,” Mr Quinn said. “Everybody is trying to help as much as possible.”

Among the group of volunteers was Brenda Correia, 70, from Warwick, who told The Royal Gazette: “If it was a member of my family I would be wanting as much help as possible.

“I want to show his family that we have compassion and empathy for what they must be experiencing — that’s the Bermudian way isn’t it?”

Cambridge Beaches guests Parker and Midge Symmes joined the search party.

“As soon as we were alerted to the fact that he was missing we wanted to help out. It’s a dreadful thing to have happened and his family must be so worried,” Mrs Symmes, retired, said.”

The effort was also supported by a team of missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

“We’re here to do service in the community and that’s what we’re doing — supporting the community in whatever way we can,” group leader Sister Johnson said.

After the search of 9 Beaches proved fruitless, the team moved on to another neighbourhood resort, Willow Bank, before deciding to focus on the area around Cambridge Beaches.

Mr Quinn knocked on doors of residential homes asking if occupants had any sighting of Mr Grange.

Earlier his family said the missing man could have taken shelter in an unsecured garden shed.

Hopes were raised at one point when one of the search party received a call suggesting that the tourist had been found. The information proved to be bogus.

Earlier yesterday police confirmed that they had once more stepped up their efforts and were focusing the search in the west end, including Dockyard.

A police spokesman said: “The Bermuda Police Service continues to appeal for the public’s assistance in locating 67 year old Canadian visitor William Grange, who was last seen on the evening of Friday, May 2 in area of the Cambridge Beaches Resort.

“He was last seen wearing beige pants, a blue shirt, brown jacket and brown shoes and is described as a Caucasian male, 5’9” tall with white hair, who suffers from short term memory loss.”

“Once again, anyone who may have seen or who may have any information on the whereabouts of Mr Grange is urged to contact the main police telephone number 295-0011 immediately, reporting all relevant information.”

One of Mr Grange’s sons, John, flew to the Island at the weekend, while a second son is understood to have a arrived last night.

Earlier, John Grange had described his father as “a smart man” who was also probably “scared” to be lost on an unfamiliar resort.

“I think he doesn’t know where he is,” Mr Grange said at a press conference on Monday. “He has a history of seizures and hasn’t had any medication in the past two days. We’re not sure what the implications are.”

Last night, as the search entered its fifth day, an increasingly desperate Mr Grange told The Royal Gazette: “There’s been no news. There have been some leads, but nothing solid yet.

“I think we know for sure now that he’s no longer in the Somerset area as the entire area has been searched by police and volunteers. We have gone through all the abandoned buildings and have basically been going door-to-door, asking people to look in their sheds and gardens, and four guys who came down from Toronto have been handing out flyers in Hamilton.”