A missing 91-year-old Korean War vet was found suffering from dementia more than 200 miles from his Wyoming home — when his worried wife spotted him on the evening news two days after he wandered off.
Avril Black became increasingly concerned after her husband, Michael Black, disappeared after he left their Afton home on Nov. 25, prompting her to report him missing the next morning, according to a local report.
While authorities reportedly gathered that he hitchhiked his way to Ovid, Idaho, then traveled to Garden City, Utah, and was on the loose from there.
While the search was ongoing, Michael was welcomed into the Salt Lake Rescue Mission on Tuesday night, after a missionary reached out to a worker at a homeless shelter, according to KSL News.
“I realized the sweet old man needed some help,” Jay Ross, a church leader at the shelter, said of the Korean War veteran.
As Avril continued to think about her missing husband, she flipped on the 10pm news on Tuesday and witnessed a miracle.
While watching a segment on KSL about Thanksgiving meals being served at the Utah shelter, she saw her husband in the background eating food more than a three-hour drive away from home.
“You were just filming and you thought, ‘Okay, wait a minute. I'm sure I saw Michael. “So I paused the TV, turned it back on, and yes, it was definitely there!”
She described that moment as “unreal.”
“I felt so relieved, and I slept that night knowing he was safe,” she said.
Ross also ended up calling Afton police the next morning on Thanksgiving after he remembered the missionary mentioning that the elderly man was from the small Wyoming town.
Michael was diagnosed with dementia nine years ago and had a tendency to wander, but this was the longest – and farthest – period he had spent away from home.
“I'm speechless. I'm just blown away by what happened,” a grateful Avril told the station.
“Boy, did he have a guardian angel looking after him. And you guys, thank God you were there.”
