SEQUIM — An 89-year-old man is keeping warm at home after spending several chilling hours lost and disoriented Monday night.
After at least five hours of being lost, with Sequim Police, Fire District No. 3 and family members searching, Ray Napoleon Guerin was found huddled off a bicycle trail on one of the coldest nights of the fall season.
“It was awfully cold,” Guerin said from his home in SunLand Resort Tuesday.
“I was shaking like a bugger.”
Trudi Elofson, Guerin’s daughter, said that her father feared the worst.
“He thought he was going to die out there,” she said.
Guerin is diabetic and suffered a stroke in April 2005, Elofson said.
Became confused
Guerin had gone into the Sequim QFC at 990 E. Washington St. to pick up a medication sometime between 4:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.
He then apparently became confused and left through a side door.
His wife, Donna, had left him while parking the car and was unable to find him.
After some searching, police were called at 5:50 p.m.
The search began with three Sequim Police officers and Guerin’s family.
At about 8:30 p.m. Fire District No. 3 was notified, and called up about a dozen volunteer and professional firefighters to help.
Fliers were made and the search area was divided into sections.
It turns out, Guerin had walked to The Riptide Restaurant at 380 E. Washington St., ordered a meal, had a martini, and left without finishing the meal, said Elofson.
Sequim Police Sgt. Ken Almberg, who commanded the search effort, said Guerin was also spotted at a pizza restaurant near QFC.
At some point later Guerin made his way to a brushy area behind the shopping complex and huddled on the ground.
At about 10:30 p.m., Firefighter Gary Meyer found Guerin, huddled in the brush, Vogel said.
“He was settling in for the evening,” Almberg said.
The former Edmonds resident was brought to a doctor, who determined his vital signs were strong, Elofson said.
“They couldn’t find a thing wrong with him,” she said.
“He’s tough.”
“I just got under a tree,” Guerin said, noting that he was following survival training he learned in the Boy Scouts.
