It is thanks to a jogging outing that the 86 year old man missing in Dordogne since Saturday December 7 has been found in good health this Sunday afternoon. The retiree spent the night in his stuck car in a field in Mensignac, 40 kilometers from his home in Mussidan.
Found 40 kilometers from Mussidan
The Dordogne gendarmerie launched a search as soon as his family reported the disappearance of this octogenarian on Saturday evening around 8:30 p.m. The retiree had left his house in Mussidan at 6 p.m. at the wheel of his white Ford C-Maxtelling his wife that he was going to sleep in his house in Belvès and that he would return to Mussidan this Sunday morning. Except that he hasn't had any property in Belvès for several years.
The searches carried out until 1 a.m., and again this Sunday morning, on the roads between Mussidan and Belvès had not found the slightest trace of the old man. It was finally near Mensignac, north of Mussidan, that this was resolved.
A white car stuck in a field in the middle of nowhere
A group of friends were running on his usual circuitthis Sunday morning, when they saw a white car in a field. “At the place where a stream passesdescribes one of the runners, Grégory Mercier, elected official of the commune. At first we think of a hunter's car. But it was still 300 meters from the path. We continue to run while still telling ourselves that it’s weird”.
A few hours later, early in the afternoon, Grégory Mercier was scrolling on Facebook and came across publications about the disappearance of the retireewith the description and registration of the car. “That’s what turned me on. I decided to go look directly and I came across the gentleman who was inside”he says.
“If we hadn’t taken our usual route, he could have spent a few more days there”
The octogenarian is healthy, but disoriented. He got lost while trying to head towards Belvès, until he found himself stuck, his wheels in the small stream, just on the border between Mensignac and Lisle. He spent the night without eating or drinking. “Luckily he didn’t get out of the car, because there was water. If he had fallen into the water, it would have been complicated”thinks Grégory Mercier.
“It's a route that we're used to doing. But if we hadn't taken it that way, he could have spent a few more days there, because we couldn't see the car from the road”adds Grégory Mercier, relieved to have followed his intuition by returning to the site. The octogenarian was taken care of at the town hall of Mensignac to warm up while his family comes to pick him up.
