INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — On night three of a search for a missing 86-year-old with dementia and Parkinson’s disease, deputies operating drones over a wooded area spotted a small blip of heat through the pines and palmettos.
The blip picked up by a thermal sensor on a drone operated by one of a team of two brothers, both deputies and drone pilots, could have been a small animal or a puddle of water still warm from heat of the day.
But it was Donald Keaton, 86, lying in the vegetation, unable to walk, waiting for rescue. He’d been missing for 81 hours after going for a walk around 2 p.m. Nov. 16.
He was found roughly 150 yards off of an unmarked trail that runs north from County Road 512 to the Fellsmere Rail Trail, altogether just under a mile from his seasonal residence at Encore RV Park in the 9000 block of 108th Avenue.
“Any small heat source, no matter how small, we were going to go and check it out,” said Deputy Ryan Matthews during a Nov. 20 news conference at the Sheriff’s Office about finding Keaton. “At that point in time we had already probably checked out 20 to 30 small heat signatures that were obviously nothing.”
Deputy Kristopher Matthews navigated the drone through the trees Nov. 19 at 10:30 p.m. and used the device’s spotlight to illuminate the source of the heat.
In the light he said he saw Keaton lying on the ground under saw palmetto fronds pulling at the branches around him.
Joyce Keaton said at the news conference that in the less than 24 hours since reuniting with her husband, she has only learned some of what happened to him.
She said Keaton told her at the moment he was discovered that “he couldn’t get out of the hole. That was why he was breaking the palms.”
“He was trying to put them underneath himself so that he could lift himself out,” she said. “He said ‘I tried, I couldn’t get out of the hole. He figured if he could get out he could walk home, but he just didn’t have the strength to get out.”
Deputy Ryan Matthews approached him on foot along with Lt. Kevin Jaworski.
Jaworski said there was no hole where he was lying, and he had fallen and couldn’t stand amid the tree roots and mud.
It was only when Keaton pulled the branches away that Jaworski said the drone could sense the heat through the “tiny hole” in the tree canopy.
“This, very easily, could’ve become a cold case,” said Jaworski.
Indian River County Fire Rescue Deputy Chief David Rattray said Keaton appeared unharmed and was awake and talking normally as he was evaluated and taken by ambulance to a hospital.
He was treated for possible dehydration, he said.
Joyce Keaton said her husband was recovering at Orlando Health Sebastian River Hospital and would likely be released in a day.
She said her husband is an avid walker, although his Parkinson’s disease affected his movement.
The day before he was lost, she said he had told her he wanted to walk across the trail bridge that crosses Interstate 95. She said she went there first to look for him, and began calling his name.
“He said he heard somebody yelling, but he couldn’t yell back,” she said.
She said she learned at one point he was lying only “a few feet to the left of me,” but didn’t see or hear him.
This was the first time she said he had gone on a walk and not returned home.
Little room for compromise: Sheriff, Indian River commissioners continue budget standoff
Doctor arrest: At least 20 complaints reported against Vero Beach doctor following arrest
At the hospital, she said he told her that while he was out in the elements, he thought he might die “and then he started praying.”
Keaton, she said, is an Army veteran. They have been married 31 years and have family in Ohio and Massachusetts. In the off-season, they live in Ohio.
Sheriff Eric Flowers called the rescue a “Thanksgiving miracle” made possible by the collaboration of agencies in surrounding cities and counties.
Despite several insect bites, Joyce Keaton said her husband was unharmed. At the hospital, she said she knew he would recover after he requested a strawberry milkshake.
“He’s doing great,” she said. “He’s still ornery.”
She said the experience had given her “a whole different perspective of the police department.”
“I just thank you for not giving up, and saving my husband,” she said to deputies and family members in the agency auditorium.
Joyce Keaton said she will go on walks with her husband now, and that he will be outfitted with a Project Lifesaver bracelet, which is designed for those with conditions like dementia who either wander or become lost.
(This story was updated with videos, photo and more information.)
Corey Arwood is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm. Follow Corey on Twitter @coreyarwood, or reach him by phone at 772-978-2246.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Missing Vero Beach man, 86, found alive near home after 3 days
Reporting by Corey Arwood, Treasure Coast Newspapers / Treasure Coast Newspapers
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
