The 69-year-old man, suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, had been missing since Saturday, June 29 from Machézal. A search, organized by the family on Monday, July 1, in parallel with the police search, allowed him to be found.
The faces are no longer the same. In the parking lot of the La Mule inn in Machézal, on the edge of the RN7, this Monday, July 1st around 3 p.m., there are now big smiles exchanged between those present. Tears of worry have given way to tears of joy. Jean-Louis, 69, missing for three days, has just been found, slightly injured. Almost a miracle.Nearly 80 people came to take part in the searches, with the support of the gendarmerie.
Two hours earlier, nearly 80 people had turned up for a search organized by the wife of the sixty-year-old. Family members, friends, neighbors, acquaintances and strangers had gathered in the restaurant parking lot to go looking for Jean-Louis. Faces were tense and hope was slim for many. “We’ll find him,” some wanted to convince themselves as they hugged each other, trying to force fate.
Three days without news
The man disappeared on Saturday, June 29 around 6 p.m., after leaving La Roche, in Machézal, for a usual walk with his dog. Since then, nothing or very little. Three days without any news, probably without being able to eat or drink. Jean-Louis suffers from Alzheimer’s disease and suffers from significant cognitive disorders. Witnesses reportedly saw him shortly after, walking on the side of a road, then around 8:30 p.m. on the side of the RN7, not far from the restaurant La Mule.
A helicopter and three dogs engaged
On the night of Saturday to Sunday, from 9pm to 1am, the first searches undertaken by the gendarmerie with the help of a tracking dog had yielded nothing. On Sunday, 16 soldiers, a second dog and a helicopter were mobilised to find the sixty-year-old. In vain. His Border Collie named “Toto” was found in Lay during the day, several kilometres from his home. Still without managing to locate the owner.A map with the areas to be searched was presented to the participants of the search.
On Monday morning, July 1st, a Saint-Hubert dog, specialized in so-called “cold” tracks, came from Clermont-Ferrand to reinforce the system. He “marked” near the inn’s parking lot, before losing his trail. What had Jean-Louis done? Had he retraced his steps? Had he hitchhiked? Had he gone into the very dense vegetation at that location?
Make four groups and go in the four directions of the cardinal points. Look carefully everywhere, even take the small paths.
It was from this last point where her husband had been spotted that his wife decided to organize a search, this Monday at the very beginning of the afternoon. Two gendarmes from the Balbigny Brigade Community are present to give instructions to the 80 people. “Form four groups and leave in the four directions of the cardinal points. Look carefully everywhere, even take the small paths”, explains one of the two soldiers while designating the sectors to be searched on a map. Meeting is scheduled around 4 p.m. for an initial assessment.
The sixty-year-old was found by a group around 3 p.m.
It was not necessary to wait that long. Around 3 p.m., the sixty-year-old was spotted by one of the groups on the move, a few hundred meters away as the crow flies. The man had fallen down a slope on a path and was lying there, curled up and prostrated in some brambles. He was disoriented and dehydrated, suffering from an ankle, but was alive and only slightly injured.
The good news spreads through cell phones and soon all the walkers are in the parking lot to hug each other as they return. Anxiety has given way to relief.The sixty-year-old’s dog “Toto” was found on Sunday and was present among the walkers on Monday afternoon.
A team from the Roanne fire brigade’s Reconnaissance and Intervention Group in Dangerous Environments (GRIMP) was called in to support the first responders on site, to enable the sixty-year-old to be better evacuated, before he was taken to the emergency department of Roanne hospital to receive treatment and undergo further examinations. “The story has a happy ending, it feels good,” said one person who had just taken part in the search.
Pascal Jacquet
