WATERVILLE — A Webb Road man missing for about eight hours was found and taken to the hospital last night.
He was taken to Thayer Center for Health because he was dehydrated, police said.
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Wesley Johnston, 82 had been missing since about 10:45 a.m. Tuesday when he disappeared from his brother’s vehicle in the Hannford supermarket parking lot on Kennedy Memorial Drive.
Johnston was found a little after 7 p.m. by a game warden in a wooded area off Nelson Street, according to Det. Sgt. William Bonney of the Waterville Police Department.
“He was laying down under a large tree that was secluded from the road by low hanging tree branches,” Bonney said. “We thought it was a high-probability area.”
Nelson Street is about a quarter-mile from where Johnston was last seen.
Bonney said Johnston was conscious but dehydrated after spending most of the hot day outside without food and water. Bonney said Johnston was responsive, but he doesn’t communicate well because of his medical condition. Bonney said Johnston had a stroke in mid-June.
Bonney said that Johnston’s dehydration “can turn into something serious with someone that age.”
Johnston wandered from his brother’s vehicle while his brother was shopping at Hannaford Tuesday morning, according to Deputy Police Chief Charles Rumsey said. Johnston was sitting in the vehicle, but when his brother returned after the short shopping trip, he was gone.
The brother, who lives with Johnston, searched until about 1 p.m. when he called police, Rumsey said.
The Maine State Police, Waterville Police Department, Waterville Fire Department and the Maine Warden Service responded to the search. About 35 officials were searching throughout Tuesday, Bonney said.
“The professionalism of the agencies to come together and have the search end with a happy ending, that’s very significant,” Bonney said.
Jesse Scardina — 861-9239
Twitter: @jessescardina
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