A 73-year-old man missing for two days was found by searchers in several inches of water in a wooded marshland near his New Jersey home and was taken to a medical center for evaluation, authorities said.
The Lacey Township man — who has both dementia and Parkinson’s Disease — was reported missing at 10:10 a.m. Saturday, almost 48 hours after he walked away from his home around noon Thursday, the Asbury Park Press reported.
Chief Michael DiBella of the Lacey police department said officers immediately checked the places he was known to frequent, but as the weather deteriorated the search was extended to include part of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge near the man's home.
Officers were joined in their search of the woods by personnel from the Ocean County Sheriff’s Department and the Lanoka Harbor Fire Company with the aid of the sheriff's K-9 unit and off-road police and sheriff's department patrol units.
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DiBella said members of the off-road units found the missing man at about 2:45 p.m. in the wooded marsh area.
The man was “lying on his back in several inches of water and was unable to move," but was conscious and able to speak, DiBella said. He was extricated from the marsh and brought out of the woods by harbor emergency medical personnel with an off-road utility vehicle and was taken to a Toms River medical center for further evaluation.
