The 87-year-old man with dementia was found in the woods on Feb. 21, Massachusetts State Police said.Photo:Massachusetts State Police
Massachusetts State Police
An 87-year-old man with dementia was found in the woods thanks to the Massachusetts State Police Air Wing and a K-9 unit after he vanished for nearly eight hours, police said.
State policesaid in a release on Mondaythat troopers from the State Police-Russell Barracks and members of the Massachusetts State Police K9 Unit, Special Emergency Response Team (SERT) and Air Wing responded on the afternoon of Feb. 21 to help Russell Police search for the missing man.
The man, who has not been identified, was last seen just after 12 p.m. local time in the area of Blandford Road.
“MSP K9 Unit Trooper Ken Hanchett deployed his partner, Orry, who quickly acquired a scent and began to pull down the hill,” state police added. “Upon reaching the bottom, Trooper Hanchett and Orry tracked across a flooded and frozen stretch of ground into a clearing.”
In the clearing, police say Orry showed a “proximity alert” and “pulled intensely across another overgrown and frozen area to a large tree.” K9 Trooper John Areche and SERT Trooper Timothy Fanion assisted in the search.
At the same time, MSP Air 4, one of the helicopters in the Department’s Air Wing, conducted “an aerial search and observed a heat signature in the vicinity of the K9 team.”
“As Orry pulled toward the tree, Trooper Hanchett observed the elderly man lying on the ground,” the release said. “By this point it was approximately 8 PM, nearly eight hours after the man was last seen.”
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Troopers Hanchett, Areche and Fanion rendered emergency aid as additional SERT troopers responded to the scene.
His condition at this time remains unclear.
source: people.com
