Tarboro, N.C. — The Edgecombe County Sheriff's Office was searching Tuesday for a 75-year-old man who is believed to be cognitively impaired. 

The North Carolina Center for Missing Persons issued a Silver Alert for Melvin Anthony Travers around 4:30 p.m. He was last seen at 832 N.C. Highway 111/122 South in Tarboro and may be headed to Washington, D.C., or Newport News, Va., authorities said.

Travers is believed to be driving a white 1994 Chevrolet GMT-400 with North Carolina license plate CW-5239.

He is black, with short, black hair and brown eyes. He stands 6 feet tall, weighs about 172 pounds and was last seen wearing blue jeans, a blue T-shirt, a green vest coat, black shoes and a black Teamsters ball cap.

Anyone with information on Travers' whereabouts is asked to call the sheriff's office at 252-641-7911.

Developed in 2007, the Silver Alert system quickly notifies the public about missing endangered people who suffer from dementia or other cognitive impairments, such as Alzheimer's disease.

It also allows caregivers and nursing homes to report a person missing. In the past, only a family member could report an adult missing.