QUINCY — On Saturday night, a 68-year-old Quincy man was reported missing near the 23000 block of State Route 28 in the Trinidad area.  

Grant County Sheriff’s Office worked alongside Grant County Fire District 3, Quincy Police Department, Columbia EMS and Life Flight Network to search for this missing man.  

He was found safe at around 10:35 p.m. Saturday night after two hours of searching.  

GCSO Public Information Officer Kyle Foreman said he was found around 1.5 miles northwest of where he had gone missing. Foreman said it was helpful that their relative called law enforcement as soon as they noticed the man was missing.  

“If anyone has a relative or a loved one or someone that they're taking care of, if that person has cognitive issues and walks or drives away from where they're staying, please call the sheriff's office right away so we can begin a search,” Foreman said. 

He said there is a common misconception that people must wait 24 or 48 hours after the last appearance to declare a person missing; however, Foreman said that is inaccurate. 

“On popular television, there is always a mention of you having to wait 24 hours before you report someone – that's just not the case,” Foreman said. “That's not true. You can call if they've been missing 15 minutes.”  

Foreman said GCSO gets several calls a week reporting a missing person.  

“The call will be assigned to a deputy. The deputy will begin the initial investigation and gather information about the missing person, any vehicle information, if there's any medical issues that we need to be aware of that can make this person at risk or endangered. Then any circumstances that we need to be made aware of.” 

The deputy will begin with basic information such as the full name, date of birth and social security number of the missing person. Then they’ll compile details about where and when the person was last seen or heard from, details of vehicles, any known travel plans, details of any persons in company of missing persons, description of what the person was wearing, unique physical or speech characteristics and the name and phone number of the missing person’s dentist. Finally, the deputy may ask about any domestic violence or stalking history the missing person may have.  

Foreman said that although they receive multiple calls a week, in more than a handful of those cases, the person is “missing” on purpose.  

“In many of those cases, the people who are missing have chosen to be missing,” Foreman said. “If that's the case, where we investigate and we do find the person and they say, ‘I'm fine, I have gone missing by my own choice.’ Then we step back and let them be missing, and we'll just let their family know that we've made contact with them if they choose to be missing. We can't disclose where they are, because that's a person's privacy. So if we do end up finding that someone has left of their own choice, and we verify that they're OK, then the investigation is closed.”