INNISFIL - Moments before a press conference was scheduled to begin Wednesday morning, the family of a missing Alcona man got some great news.
Ken Armstrong, 75, who had been missing from his Goshen Road home since Monday afternoon, was discovered by a community member just a few minutes before a scheduled 11 a.m. press conference at South Simcoe Police’s North Division station on Innisfil Beach Road.
“Our press conference has changed dynamically in the last two to three minutes,” said South Simcoe Police Chief Andrew Fletcher told the assembled media. “We’re happy to report that Mr. Ken Armstrong was just found two minutes ago in the area of 25 Side Road and 9th Line.
“He’s currently under the care of paramedic services and is going to be taken to a local hospital,” the chief added. “He is alive, he is well.”
Armstrong’s son, Kenneth, spoke to the media briefly before departing the station with his brother, Darren, and sister, Cathey, to be with their mother, Melitha, and their father at Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH) in Barrie.
“I think all of us have driven past that area a number of times in the last couple of days and stopped people and talked to people in that area,” Kenneth Armstrong said.
“It’s a little crazy that he was right there, but at the same time it is a heavily wooded area,” he added. “If he was curled up, I think it would be very hard to find him in that area, so we fully understand.”
Mr. Armstrong, who retired from Barrie police in the early 2000s following many years in forensics, was taken to RVH as a precaution.
“He’s in incredible spirits,” Kenneth Armstrong told BarrieToday from the hospital. “He’s dehydrated and a bit weak, but I got a big hug. He’s a strong man.
“The paramedics told me he was cracking them up the whole way to the hospital,” he added. “He’s in good condition. After almost three full days, I didn’t expect him to be in as good of shape as he is.”
Mr. Armstrong had been overdue on his diabetes medication and also suffers from dementia.
Kenneth Armstrong, who is a reporter in Guelph, drove up to Innisfil on Monday night when he got the news of a fire at the Goshen Road home and that his father had wandered away from the scene.
“That night, I went around in the community and got a coffee at the drive-thru,” he said. “I bought him his black coffee, too, because I was certain I was going to find him.”
Armstrong kept that coffee in his vehicle.
“It’s a bit cold now, so he’ll maybe want something warmer,” he joked.
Armstrong thanked police and volunteers who helped search for his dad.
“On behalf of Ken Armstrong’s family, I want to thank everyone, and I mean everyone, for the response,” he said at the police station. “It’s been truly overwhelming.”
Armstrong said he was expecting the news conference to be an update on the search and further appeals to the public.
“That was not the press conference we were expecting to do,” he said. “It’s hard to put into words.”
Cathey Armstrong echoed those sentiments and talked about receiving the good news.
“We were just downstairs waiting for the news conference and we heard some chatter over the radio about 25 Side Road and 9th Line, and meeting up with a complainant,” she said. “We all looked at each other and we knew that was one of the last areas … he was sighted.”
The family then stepped into the chief’s office where Fletcher delivered the news.
“We’re just elated and grateful,” she said.
When asked how he felt, Darren Armstrong responded “ecstatic and relieved.”
The police chief credited co-operation with other local police departments as well as civilian volunteers who had been searching for Mr. Armstrong.
“I’m happy to report that all of that hard work has paid off,” Fletcher said.
Kenneth Armstrong said everyone who rallied around the family in the search for Mr. Armstrong “has gone far beyond the family’s expectation.”
Kenneth Armstrong said the family has been coming to Alcona for more than 40 years.
“The response from this community has highlighted, I think, why my father loved this area so much and why my parents chose to retire here,” he said at the press conference. “But he’s coming home.”
Armstrong added the level of support was heartening.
“Just walking around and seeing the first-responders, and people coming up to me and asking had I seen this man, not realizing I was his son, and people who don’t know him from a hole in the ground, it’s been truly, truly, truly beyond our wildest expectations,” Armstrong said.
“We’re going to go and see him and we’ll see how that goes,” he added with a laugh. “It’s been an ordeal, but it’s great news.”
An extensive search had been conducted over the past 36 hours involving officers from South Simcoe police, Barrie police, Ontario Provincial Police, York Regional police, GO Transit Safety and Security, Innisfil firefighters and the Georgian Bay Volunteer Search and Rescue.
