PORT ANGELES — Project Lifesaver equipment helped deputies find a man who had been missing from his home for five hours, they reported.
Dispatchers had received word that the unidentified 60-year-old Port Angeles resident was missing at about 4:05 p.m. last Sunday. About two minutes later, dispatchers identified him as a Project Lifesaver client.
As a participant of the Project Lifesaver program, the client wears a small electronic device, about the size of a small watch, on his person, which emits a specific radio frequency.
In cooperation with Port Angeles police officers, Clallam County Sheriff’s Office Deputies Pat Woolman, Dylan Heck and Eric Morris arrived in the area at about 4:20 p.m. with equipment designed to track the radio frequency on the client’s transmitter.
Heck started the track at the client’s last known location while Woolman and Morris started tracking from the client’s residence.
Deputies located the missing man at 4:36 p.m. about five blocks from his residence, the sheriff’s office reported.
They took him to his residence and released him to his caregiver.
Project Lifesaver is a program designed to track and rescue individuals with cognitive conditions who tend to wander, such as some people with dementia or Down syndrome.
The service is available for all qualified participants living within Clallam County. Through funding from other sources, the cost is a one-time enrollment fee of $50.
The Sequim Police Department is the Project Lifesaver agency for those residents living east of Deer Park and the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office is the Project Lifesaver agency for all residents living west of Deer Park Road.
For more information about the Project Lifesaver program, contact the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office at 360-417-2262 or visit https://www.clallam.net/Sheriff/projectlifesaver.html#transmitter.
Eric Morris
