Missing retired fire chief returns home safely, El Dorado sheriff’s officials say
A retired Bay Area fire chief who had been reported missing in El Dorado County since Saturday returned home safely by Thursday evening, sheriff’s officials said.
Merlin Kelly Turner was last seen leaving Browns Valley in Yuba County and was believed to be traveling back to the El Dorado County area, according to the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office. Turner was found and reunited with family members near Knights Landing, where he had been fishing.
Turner is a retired chief of the Richmond Fire Department, which also had shared information about his disappearance on social media.
Turner’s daughter, Chaz Green, in a public Facebook post Tuesday, wrote that data from Turner’s cellphone showed he may have been in Folsom as of early Sunday morning. She also wrote that her father’s disappearance was “extremely out of character for him.”
Shortly after 7 p.m. Thursday, sheriff’s officials announced on Facebook that Turner had “safely returned home and is no longer reported missing.”
A family friend told Fox 40 that Turner was unaware how many days he had been missing or that authorities were searching for him.
This story was originally published June 11, 2020 at 9:08 PM.
