State Police K9, Air Wing locate missing 87-year-old man with dementia in Russell
A Massachusetts State Police Air Wing and K9 unit helped find a missing 87-year-old man with dementia in a wooded area in Russell recently, nearly eight hours after the man was last seen, state police said.
On Wednesday afternoon, troopers from the State Police-Russell Barracks and members of the Massachusetts State Police K9 Unit, Special Emergency Response Team, and Air Wing responded to assist Russell Police with the search for a missing 87-year-old man with dementia, state police said in a statement on Monday.
The man had been last seen shortly after noon in the area of Blandford Road.
Last Wednesday, MSP patrols and the Department's K9, search, and aviation units, along with #Russell Police, located an elderly man with dementia who had been missing for several hours in freezing temperatures. https://t.co/j4mPvKdQ0B pic.twitter.com/3WID6zhHYn
— Mass State Police (@MassStatePolice) February 26, 2024
Russell and State Police patrols were checking area homes and businesses for the man, state police said.
Meanwhile, State Police K9 teams observed several footprints in the snow leading eastward from a nearby residential driveway down a steep embankment into the woods.
State Police K9 Unit Trooper Ken Hanchett deployed his partner, Orry, who quickly acquired a scent and began to pull down the hill, state police said.
When reaching the bottom of the hill, Hanchett and Orry “tracked across a flooded and frozen stretch of ground into a clearing,” state police said.
“Once in the clearing, Orry showed a proximity alert and soon pulled intensely across another overgrown and frozen area to a large tree,” state police said.
K9 Trooper John Areche and SERT Trooper Timothy Fanion assisted with the search.
Simultaneously, Massachusetts State Police Air 4, one of the helicopters in the department’s Air Wing, was conducting an aerial search and noticed a heat signature in the vicinity of the K9 team.
As Orry pulled toward the tree, Hanchett saw the elderly man lying on the ground, state police said.
At this point it was approximately 8 p.m., nearly eight hours after the man was last seen.
Hanchett, Areche, and Fanion began rendering emergency first aid. Additional SERT Troopers responded to the location.
Troopers carried the man, who could not walk, to a waiting ambulance, which drove him to a nearby hospital for treatment of cold exposure injuries, state police said.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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