Bakersfield, Calif. ? Three months after his Alzheimer’s-afflicted wife disappeared at a busy airport, Joe Dabney is too heartbroken even to open her luggage.

“All I want is my wife,” the 63-year-old said. “She really was the only woman I ever loved. I just want to know that she’s OK, what happened.”

Margie Dabney, 70, vanished after her plane landed Dec. 5 at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

She and her husband, who uses a wheelchair, were traveling on American Airlines from Indianapolis to Los Angeles. Joe Dabney had taken his wife to her daughter’s house in Indianapolis so she could watch over Margie while he had hip surgery.

An airline attendant got them to Gate 35 to meet with a wheelchair aide who was supposed to take them to Gate 39. The attendant escorted Joe Dabney into the restroom, but when they came out they couldn’t find Margie Dabney.

Airline officials say the attendant may not have realized he was responsible for both Dabneys, or that Margie Dabney had Alzheimer’s. Joe Dabney and his family blame the airline and the airport for her disappearance.

Since Margie Dabney’s disappearance, officials have searched the Dallas-Fort Worth airport’s 18,000 acres by ground and air. They have also checked hospital psychiatric wards, churches, truck stops and morgues.

Dallas activists have circulated more than 5,000 fliers, and American Airlines has hired a private investigator.

But the airline waited 75 minutes before contacting police, and the airport waited hours to contact members of the news media, who often put out reports describing missing people and asking the public to call police with information.

“The first two hours are critical,” said Brian Hance, who runs the national Alzheimer’s Assn.’s Safe Return program. “Nearly 60 percent of people with Alzheimer’s will wander at some point. If they’re not found within 24 hours, at least 46 percent may die, normally succumbing to hypothermia or dehydration.”

American Airlines spokeswoman Andrea Rader said she didn’t know whether the airline would take any responsibility for losing Margie Dabney “because there’s a lot of nuances to it, and a lot of things we just don’t know at this stage of things. Our actions certainly say that this was a terrible thing that happened to one of our customers, that we really pulled out the stops.”

Airport spokesman Ken Capps said airport police will undergo training on how to respond when a memory-impaired person goes missing, but added, “We feel quite comfortable with our efforts in this case.”

An estimated 4 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease, which progressively robs all memory. By the year 2050, that number is expected to grow to 14 million.

Margie Dabney once disappeared for three days in Bakersfield while her husband used a bus depot rest room.

The couple have been married 34 years and have 10 children.