Missing man found after massive search
An 86-year-old man who wandered from his home was found about five hours after his family discovered him missing.
An 86-year-old man who wandered from his home in Union Township was found about five hours after his family discovered him missing Monday morning.
The man, who has Alzheimer’s disease, turned up just before noon at a home at Ninth and Chestnut streets in a housing development along Route 345 just south of Daniel Boone High School, about a mile north of his home, state police Cpl. Aaron
Sidella of the Reading station said.
He appeared in good health, Sidella said.
The man’s family discovered him missing shortly after 7 a.m. and called 9-1-1. They had last seen him about 12:30 a.m., so it was unknown when he left the home or even his direction of travel.
A search party assembled at Kulptown Fire Company station located close to the missing man’s home.
Two K-9 units were unable to pick up a scent of the man, and the foliage was too dense for a search by air. Troopers requested the Birdsboro-Union Fire Department to orchestrate a search of all wooded areas and trails in the area of the man’s home.
From the command post at the Kulptown Fire Company, the fire company put out a request for additional ATVs from area fire and rescue units.
According to a social media post by the Birdsboro-Union, a number of civilians responded with their ATVS.
While that search was going on, troopers independently went door to door in the neighborhood near the high school, asking residents if they had seen the missing man and for them to call if they should see him, Sidella said.
Troopers had just left one of the homes when they got a call from that residence: the man they were looking for was there.
The search was called off.
Birdsboro-Union personnel also were assisted by volunteers from Geigertown, Monarch, Gibraltar and Earl Township fire companies and Twin Valley Fire Department and the civilians who brought their personal ATVs.