Wayne Strilesky, sitting in the red jacket which kept him warm overnight in the forests near Green Lake. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Ian Holmes

Successful search

‘I was expecting worse’: family relieved after elderly man found in upper Lantzville woods

Aug 20, 2019 | 7:11 AM

LANTZVILLE — A family celebration put on hold can resume after volunteers found a man with severe dementia who’d walked away into the dense Upper Lantzville brush just west of Green Lake.

Wayne Strilesky, 75, was missing for nearly 24 hours when he was discovered by a pair of Nanaimo Search and Rescue volunteers and a K9 unit around noon on Tuesday, Aug. 20.

Strilesky had wandered away from his brother’s home on nearby Manhatten Way during a family birthday party.

He was found roughly 300 metres to the east of the property in thick, swampy vegetation.

An emotional Natalka Strilesky thanked and hugged SAR volunteers as her husband was checked over by paramedics and taken to hospital for observation.

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“I can’t tell you how much I appreciate everything they’ve done for my husband, who doesn’t even understand he was gone. He has no idea,” she told reporters as tears rolled down her face.

Strilesky became lost after venturing from the property and into the woods Monday afternoon. Family efforts to find him failed and the RCMP were called soon after, who tasked Nanaimo Search and Rescue to assist.

His wife said they’d now invest in a tracking device for her husband.

Nanaimo SAR members Dave Roberts, Carly Trobridge and search dog Hazel found the missing man.

The duo was following a track laid by Hazel when Roberts turned to his right and found Strilesky.

“As I approached him he was just standing there in good health,” Roberts said. “He was just a little bit thirsty, no scratches. He was doing really well for being out overnight.”

Roberts said Strilesky didn’t realize he was missing, but did appear disoriented.

“He asked for his wife, that was the first thing he said.”

Carly Trobridge, Dave Roberts and Hazel of Nanaimo Search and Rescue minutes after the trio found an elderly man with severe dementia just west of Green Lake Tuesday, Aug. 20. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

Trobridge said being involved with positive resolutions to searches never gets old.

“To be able to see the family reunite makes all the training worthwhile. It’s what keeps us going when we don’t have happy endings.”

Forty regional search and rescue volunteers, numerous RCMP resources and a helicopter were tasked with looking for Strilesky.

ian@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @reporterholmes