Missing Plainfield man found by railroad conductors after massive two-day search
An elderly Plainfield man with dementia who went missing on Sunday was found alive Tuesday by railroad conductors after an exhaustive search by a host of emergency service agencies.
Wauregan resident Norman Barrette, 87, was reported missing by his family at 6:34 p.m. on Sunday after last being seen a few hours prior at his residence, police said.
Plainfield police began searching the villages of Wauregan and Moosup with a focus on the Green Hollow Road area. Officers were soon joined by members of several local volunteer fire departments, including from Atwood Hose, Moosup and Central Village.
State police from the Troop D and E barracks were also brought in, along with Killingly police constables.
After failing to immediately locate Barrette, police instituted patrol checks, neighborhood canvasses, grid searches, video surveillance tracking and sent out public alerts. A department K9 was deployed, along with a state police bloodhound, but with no success, police said. As the sun set on Sunday, a state police drone unit was sent up to search wooded areas, again without any sign of the missing man.
On Monday, a state police search and rescue team consisting of several K9s were activated and supplemented with officer foot patrols. Plainfield Deputy Chief Will Wolfburg said an “extensive amount of mileage” was searched throughout the day that wound through woods, roadways, train tracks and swamps.
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“Some of our officers walked upwards of 20 miles a day during that search,” Wolfburg said Tuesday afternoon.
On Tuesday, a state police helicopter was deployed just as numerous 911 callers reported spotting Barrette on a set of train tracks near the CSI Pipe property on All Hallows Road in Wauregan by P&W Railroad conductors as they went past on their route.
Barrette was transported to The William W. Backus Hospital in Norwich as a precaution, police said.
“He was located within 10 miles of his residence and was in completely good health with no injuries,” Wolfburg said.
John Penney can be reached at jpenney@norwichbulletin.com or at (860) 857-6965.
This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: Missing Plainfield man, Norman Barrette, found after two-day search
