Trial set in case involving patient who wandered from Bluffton facility and died
A jury will consider next week whether a Bluffton care home is responsible for the death of a 79-year-old dementia patient who slipped out of the facility.
Trial proceedings are expected to begin Monday in the wrongful death lawsuit against The Palmettos of Bluffton and its parent company. The suit was filed by the family of Jack Tribble, whose body was found a half-mile from the assisted living facility two weeks after he wandered out of its memory care unit in August 2023.
An autopsy determined Tribble died of acute bronchopneumonia caused by environmental exposure, according to court filings. He had Lewy body dementia, a progressive disease that leads to cognitive decline, visual hallucinations and movement issues similar to symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Filed in Beaufort County civil court in 2024, the lawsuit alleges The Palmetto’s “negligent and substandard care” allowed Tribble, who had a known history of wandering and elopement, to pass through a keypad-locked entryway and walk out of the facility the evening of Aug. 23, 2023.
Tribble made it outside by following a contracting employee who had been given the passcode to the door, court documents claim. The lawsuit alleges at least two employees at The Palmettos witnessed the patient outside the building but failed to intervene, and that it took facility staff three hours to notice Tribble had disappeared.
The Tennessee-based contracting company that was conducting repairs in The Palmettos that day was initially named in the lawsuit, along with the project’s foreman. But they were dropped as defendants earlier this month, according to Robert G. Rikard, whose Columbia-based personal injury law firm is representing the Tribble family. Rikard declined to say whether those two parties had settled out of court.
“Nursing homes must keep track of their patients,” read a statement from the Rikard & Protopapas firm released after the lawsuit was filed. “Our investigation revealed that previous assessments noted Jack’s history of wandering and wanting to leave the facility. The nursing home staff failed to protect Jack. The result was a devastating loss of life.”
Patient had a ‘strong desire to wander’
Born and raised in the mountains of Colorado, Tribble was a father of two, a patent lawyer and an avid skier. He and his wife Margaret were married for 51 years, according to his obituary. The couple retired to Cape Cod and spent their winters on Hilton Head Island.
“We’re very worried ... (Jack) will be off his meds now completely,” Margaret Tribble said in a video posted four days after her husband’s disappearance, asking for the public’s help after police discontinued their search efforts. “At this stage, he’s probably somewhere feeling isolated, alone and very frightened.”
The search for Tribble near the intersection of S.C. 170 and Bluffton Parkway involved on-foot search parties, helicopters, drones, ATVs and a bloodhound team. The man’s body was found Sept. 6, 2023, in a swampy area less than a half-mile from The Palmettos, police said. A coroner’s report concluded he had died two days prior.
Jurors will decide if home, parent company can be held liable
Beginning next week, a panel of Beaufort County jurors will be tasked with deciding whether The Palmettos and its parent company National Healthcare Corporation — which operates the Bluffton care home and over 100 other facilities nationwide — can be held liable for Tribble’s fatal disappearance.
Court documents allege staff at The Palmettos enabled Tribble’s death by wrongfully giving the security code to contracting employees, not conducting regular checks on patients and generally failing to implement sufficient safety measures in response to the 79-year-old’s “strong desire to wander.”
The filings include photos of the locked entryway that Tribble allegedly slipped through as he followed a contractor out of the memory care unit. A sign posted on the door included a reminder for those coming and going from the secure area: “Please check surroundings for residents and alert staff when leaving to ensure safety of residents.”
This story was originally published April 30, 2026 at 12:02 PM.
