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Ian and Jack got lost in the forest in North Sea, and were found by police after an extensive search.
Southampton Town Police were called on the night of July Fourth to the DuPree home in North Sea where Linda and Wayne DuPree reported their son Ian, 36, who has Down syndrome, had taken their dog Jack for a walk at dusk and didn’t return after getting lost in the 100-acre nature preserve behind their house.
“We have very dense woods with lots of trails behind our house,” Ms. DuPree explained. “We were panic stricken after hunting fruitlessly ourselves for an hour and a half.”
Police were on the scene within 12 minutes, she reported. By 10:19 p.m., a call went out for the Southampton Village K9 Unit and the Suffolk County Police Aviation Unit, which sent a helicopter. Thirteen police officers and volunteers from the local fire department joined the search, according to Town Police spokesperson Lieutenant Susan Ralph.
Ms. Dupree related that Lt. Ralph, seeing how distraught the parents were, said, “We are going to find your son, and we’re not leaving here until we do.”
“These are amazing people,” Mr. DuPree said. “They looked for this kid like he was their own.”
As officers on the ground on quads began their search, the aviation unit used a thermal imaging device to track Ian, who was on a cellphone and able to say when he saw the helicopter, Lt. Ralph explained. That Ian had his phone was a coincidence, Ms. DuPree said. “Ian very rarely brings his phone with him. Wayne called and he answered and said, ‘I’m stuck in the forest.’”
“We had him on his cellphone and he could see the helicopter above him,” Lt. Ralph said. “We located him at approximately 11:50 p.m. and he was met by an officer on ATV.”
She said the coordinated efforts of the different police units led to the successful search and recovery of the missing man.
“The dedication of the officers ready to go to great lengths to locate a missing person is inherent to our nature and commitment to our job to serve our community,” she said.
Lauding the professionalism of the responding officers, Mr. DuPree said, “We didn’t have the opportunity to thank them, they had to rush out to another emergency.” The family subsequently brought a fruit basket and Gatorade to headquarters to say “thank you.”
