The family of a missing elderly Nova Scotia man says they are growing increasingly concerned with each passing hour.

James Cuthbert left his home in Head of Jeddore on the Eastern Shore around 11:30 a.m. Sunday.

“He was going to see his mother, which he does religiously every second day between the hours of 1 and 3 and nothing interferes with that visit, no matter what,” says Tom Martin, Cuthbert’s son-in-law.

“We’re talking about a 71-year-old man, sound mind, sound body, healthy as a horse, outside working, no medical issues whatsoever.”

Investigators have used surveillance video to begin a timeline of Cuthbert’s activities; he stopped at the Esso service station on Cole Harbour Road shortly after noon and then stopped at the Canadian Tire store in Dartmouth Crossing around 12:30 p.m.

But after that, the trail goes cold.

“You can see him turn around. It looks like he’s looking for something, probably the phone,” says his son, Robert Cuthbert. “He goes over to the automotive service counter and uses the phone there.”

Investigators say Cuthbert used the phone at Canadian Tire to call home. He left a voicemail saying he had run into some former colleagues from the Bedford Institute of Oceanography and that he would be late returning home, but he didn’t say how late.

Martin, a former homicide investigator with the Halifax Regional Police, says it doesn’t add up.

“I’ve gone through it many, many times, my wife and I, Jim’s daughter, and something’s not right with that call,” he says. “I’m not the investigator, I can’t put that hat on, but you can’t surgically remove it either. It’s in your DNA.”

Police say there is no reason to suggest Cuthbert has met with foul play, but a helicopter was searching the Dartmouth and Eastern Passage areas Tuesday in an effort to find his white Toyota Prius.

“It’s very important for us because at least we can work on a timeline at that point,” says Halifax Regional Police Const. Holly Tooke.

Meanwhile, Martin says his father-in-law’s disappearance has brought back memories of missing person cases he has worked on over the years.

“I look back on some of the families I’m close to, that I deal with, and the one that comes to mind is Kim McAndrew.”

Kimberly McAndrew, 19, has been missing since Aug. 12, 1989. Like Cuthbert, she was last seen leaving a Canadian Tire store in the Halifax area.

Cuthbert is described as a white man with slightly balding hair, a grey beard and hazel eyes. He is about six-feet tall and weighs 170 pounds. He was last seen wearing rimless glasses, a brown leather bomber-style jacket and brown loafer shoes.

Police say he drives a white 2012 four-door Toyota Prius with Nova Scotia licence plate DTV 905.

Anyone with information on Cuthbert’s appearance is asked to contact police.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Kayla Hounsell