86-year-old who vanished while following wife to California hospital has been found

Kenneth McCormick, an 86-year-old man from Pollock Pines, California, has been found on Thursday at 11 p.m. in Mendocino County, according to the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office. McCormick was driving behind his wife to the hospital on Thursday morning when he vanished, per the sheriff’s office.

Officers were called out for a possible traffic collision on Route 101, around five miles north of Laytonville, a California Highway Patrol Garberville Area spokesperson told McClatchy News. Police found that several cars had spun out on the road and were blocking lanes, but there was no accident.

McCormick’s car was one of the vehicles blocking lanes and officers conducted a welfare check and realized he was a missing person.

Patrol officers took McCormick to a local hospital as a precaution, where they stayed with him until adult protective services arrived and took custody. The El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office also contacted McCormick’s family, who picked him up around 2 a.m.

McCormick didn’t have any injuries and his car wasn’t damaged from the incident, according to authorities.

McCormick had been following the ambulance transporting his wife to a hospital in Placerville — but he never arrived at the destination, the sheriff’s office said.

Deputies in El Dorado County had asked for everyone’s help in finding McCormick. Now the sheriff’s office is working on getting him back to his home.

The sheriff’s office had said that McCormick was considered “at-risk” and “suffers from medical conditions.”

This story has been updated.

This story was originally published December 12, 2019 at 1:01 PM.