Missing man found down embankment

CHIPPEWA, Pa. — A search for a missing 70-year-old man with dementia ended Tuesday afternoon when he was found unconscious after tumbling down an embankment.

Earl Denbow had gone to the Chippewa Police Department at 2 a.m. Surveillance video shows him pulling on the door.

No officers were there because they were all on patrol.

Unable to enter the building, he left and walked out of the view of the surveillance camera.

"Extremely relieved, considering the inclement weather we're having here and the extreme conditions," said Lt. Al Filauri, with Chippewa Township police.

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After a more than 12-hour search for Denbow with temperatures dipping into the single digits, firefighters discovered footprints that led them to him.

He had fallen down an embankment and into a valley, less than a mile from the police station.

"Apparently sometime during the course of the night, Mr. Denbow (was) wandering the area and didn't identify the hillside and fell over the hillside," Filauri said. "It's a miracle that he was located."

Wearing the clothes he was last seen in, police say Denbow was suffering from hypothermia. He wasn't verbally responsive, but he was alive.

Footprints in the snow helped lead firefighters to him.

During those agonizing hours of uncertainty, it was all hands on deck in Chippewa Township with all-terrain vehicles hitting the woods and other first responders scouring the area on foot.

It took 13 hours for Denbow to be found.

"It's really amazing that he was able to survive as long as he did," Filauri said.

Denbow was taken to Hermitage Valley Hospital for treatment and further evaluation.

Cox Media Group