ST. GEORGE, Utah — A southern Utah man helped bring peace to a Washington family when he found their missing relative lying in a dirt road in Cedar City.
Tracy Feltner, an employee of the Central Iron County Water Conservancy District, was checking water tanks Wednesday morning when he noticed a Jeep stopped in the middle of a dirt road.
“I stopped and couldn’t see anybody that needed assistance so I continued down the road about a mile, and there was a man lying in the middle of the road with no shirt or shoes on,” Feltner told The Spectrum of St. George (http://bit.ly/1nCTFdr ). “He was freezing and was possibly lying out there all night so I called 911.”
The 72-year-old man was reported missing in Onalaska, Washington, about two weeks ago, said Iron County Sheriff Lt. Del Schlosser. He said the man’s family said he was recently diagnosed with medical conditions related to memory loss.
The family had tracked him to northeast Utah and Arizona through credit card receipts.
Feltner used three extra coats to warm the man up while he called 911. He said the man was responsive, but he couldn’t make conservation.
“He was just moaning a lot,” Feltner said. “It was a sad deal. I am just happy we found him and were able to help the family with some closure. It’s always terrible when someone close to you suffers from memory loss.”
The man was taken to Valley View Medical Center, Schlosser said.
The family is grateful that their relative has been found, although Schlosser says it’s unclear why the man was nearly 1,100 miles away from home.
“We still don’t know why he was out there,” Schlosser said. “He didn’t seem to be injured. But the ambulance reported his body temperature to be really low, so he was out there for some time. There were no mechanical problems found with the Jeep — it’s still a mystery.”
