Following the successful rescue of a Marshall County man from the steep, wooded area between the village of Bethlehem and the JB Chambers/I-470 Athletic Complex in Wheeling, members of the local emergency community considered several options that would add safety and quick detection during any similar situations in the future.
The installation of motion detectors, according to Lou Vargo, the director of the Wheeling-Ohio Emergency Management Agency, was one of the first topics discussed, but the conversation quickly evolved.
“Placing the motion detectors in our wooded areas would be a good idea because we have had those cases, and we do have a lot of wooded areas that surround both commercial and residential areas, but I also think there would be a lot of challenges involved, too,” he explained. “There would be line-of-sight issues, and there would be power supply issues. Plus, we do have a lot of wildlife in our wooded area that would make those detectors go often very frequently.
“But I understand the need. The most recent case that we had was puzzling at first because what we heard was that the man was at the gas station and then he disappeared,” he recalled. “At that time, we didn’t know that man knew his way around wooded areas, and once we got on his trail, we did figure out his path and what he was trying to accomplish by following the small stream to the bottom. That case finished with a happy ending, but that’s not always been the case.”
Happy and Not-So-Happy
It was last April when an 85-year-old Moundsville man was dropped off at the Marathon gas station at the intersection of East Ohio Boulevard and Chapel Hill Road after being involved in an accident along Interstate 470. Instead of waiting for a ride home, Frank Ott decided to walk away from the station.
Deputies with the Ohio County Sheriff’s Department joined first responders from Bethlehem in the search for the senior citizen, and once video footage eliminated a few possible paths, it was determined Ott opted for the woods and apparently spent the night along a path that eventually led him to the sports complex in Elm Grove.
But nearly 20 years ago, Nancy Lynn Green vanished in the early-morning hours of Sept. 30, 2002, from the former campus of the Ohio Valley Medical Center. Green had hidden in the wooded area near Wheeling Hospital before this incident, but this time his family and friends feared for the worst.
Green had been diagnosed with bipolar disease prior to her disappearance, and a large group comprised of family, friends, and first responders searched the wooded area behind the former hospital for days. Not a single sign of Green has been discovered since and technically Green remains missing.
“Once we did have the situation involving the older man from Marshall County in Bethlehem, there were conversations that we had about providing some kind of layer of extra safety for those situations, and those detectors were mentioned at the time, but the conversation quickly evolved,” Vargo recalled. “We also thought about the size of Ohio County compared to say a Marshall County and how many detectors that would have to be installed. So, that’s why the Project Lifesaver system is the best answer for families who may have someone they feel is vulnerable to those types of situations.
“When we do use Project Lifesaver, the Ohio County Sheriff’s Office also is utilizing drones so we can locate the individual even more quickly,” he explained. “The system also involves hand-held tracking devices that the deputies take into the wooded areas with them because it’s best to get that system as mobile as possible. The whole idea is to find the individual as quickly as possible so if they need medical attention, it can be administered as quickly as possible.”
The tracking system did not exist when Green went missing, but it could have expedited Ott’s rescue had he been wearing the bracelet. The fee for the Project Lifesaver service in Ohio County is a mere $25.
“If he would have been wearing a bracelet for Project Lifesaver, we would have been able to locate him very quickly because we do have that system in Ohio County. In fact, all of the counties here in the valley offer the service, too,” Vargo said. “Project Lifesaver is a system that involves a bracelet that is a tracking device, and a lot of families that have people with a form of dementia wear those bracelets just in case.
“Now, Project Lifesaver works for everyone, not just those who have Alzheimer’s or dementia,” he added. “But we do have the equipment and the system works very, very well. I am sure it would work well with children, too, who have a tendency to run off for whatever reasons. I am not sure how many parents are using it for their children, but I do think it’s very good in some situations.”
