LAKE COUNTY, Tenn. An 81-year-old man last seen near Dyersburg was found alive in the Lake County woods on Aug. 31, the Tennessee Department of Safety & Homeland Security said in a Sept. 3 news release. He had been alone in the woods for almost three days, the department said.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation issued a Silver Alert for Homer Billings early Saturday, Aug. 29, the department said. He was last seen traveling north near Dyersburg. A license plate reader confirmed his movements, and his cellphone later pinged near Caruthersville, Mo. That information was not enough to find him, the department said.
On Sunday, Aug. 30, home surveillance video showed Billings was still in Lake County, according to the release.
The break came Monday, Aug. 31, the department said. Lake County resident Mark Roberson checked his trail camera and spotted an image that looked like Billings. He reported it to law enforcement right away. Search teams went to the camera site and found Billings' SUV close by, then set up a command post.
Weak signals in the search area
The search area had limited cell and radio service, the department said. Before sending teams into the woods, officials called the Tennessee Advanced Communications Network, the state's public safety radio network, for help.
Two TACN technicians, Jessie Overmann and Adam Forsythe, responded from the network's Jackson office with a portable unit the state calls a compact rapid deployable. The unit is built to create radio coverage where little or none exists. They set it up around 6:10 p.m., and within minutes the whole search zone had radio contact, the department said. For the first time, every responder from every agency could talk to one another without interruption.
At 7:48 p.m., search teams found Billings lying in dense brush not far from the trail camera, according to the release. He was dehydrated, tired and confused, but responsive. The department said the radio link let every team hear the news at once, so crews could stop searching other areas and account for everyone.
Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers carried Billings out of the woods to a waiting utility terrain vehicle. He was reunited with his family and taken to a local hospital for evaluation, the department said.
Without the portable unit, the department said, responders would have had to rely on weak line-of-sight radio or walk back to the command post to share information. Those delays could have pushed the search into the night, the department said. It said any delay could have been dangerous for Billings, who was already showing signs of dehydration and confusion.
The release did not say which local agencies took part in the search, or how Billings came to be in the woods.