PALESTINE, Ill. - A great effort was put forth Tuesday evening when an elderly man suffering from dementia and Alzheimer's went missing.
The situation emerged at approximately 7:21 p.m. Tuesday evening (October 23, 2018), when Crawford County Dispatch received a call from a family in the 200 block of W. Market Street, who stated that their 84-year-old male family member, (identified as Phillip E. Ogalsbee of Palestine) had gone missing and hadn't been seen for approximately 30 minutes.
The Palestine Police Department requested dispatch to activate the following agencies to begin a search pattern for the elderly male subject. A command center was established at the LaMotte Township Fire Station.
Agencies involved were: Palestine Police Department, LaMotte Township Fire Department, Crawford County Rescue, United Life Care EMS, Crawford County Sheriff's Department and Auxillary, Crawford County EMA, ILEAS Itech #9 Communications trailer, Robinson K-9 Officer Nathaniel Nicklaus and K-9 Dex, Robinson Police Chief Chad Weaver (who provided aerial drone search patterns), Michael Kennedy and his Search-and-Rescue Dog, Todd Cooper and Floyd Brinkman (who coordinated the search detail), and Casey's General Store for providing pizzas for the search teams.
Search teams canvassed all of Palestine and the outlying areas; the K-9 dogs were able to track the elderly male subject for a distance, but then lost his scent.
At approximately 9:12 p.m., a family in the 100 block of S. Pike Street in Palestine returned from the movies and found the elderly male subject in their residence and alerted authorities. The United Life Care EMS personnel checked the male subject and found him to be unharmed. He was then returned to his family members.
Chief Jeff Besing would like to express his appreciation to all of the agencies and emergency responders who dedicated their evening searching for the missing male subject. They did an outstanding job.