A missing 72-year-old man has been found safe and sound, according to police.
MONROE – A missing 72-year-old man has been found safe and sound, according to police.
Joseph Higginbotham, a resident of the Meadowview Care Center, was found around 9 a.m. Saturday morning sitting alongside Grace Hill Road, police said in a press release Monday.
Last Tuesday at 11:41 a.m., the Monroe Township Police Department received a report of a missing person, 72-year-old Joseph Higginbotham.
He was reported missing from the Meadowview Care Center at 319 Spotswood-Gravel Hill Road.
He last was seen at the facility at about 9 p.m. last Monday, police said.
Police and emergency workers searched the area for several days last week without turning up any clues to his whereabouts, police said.
A K-9 search of the surrounding areas and neighborhoods as well as several searches on foot and checks with area hospitals, local police departments, taxi cab companies and frequented locations were unsuccessful.
Police received a call Saturday morning about an elderly man sitting on the side of the road.
Responding officers determined the man to be Mr. Higginbotham.
According to police, the senior decided to leave the facility Monday and had brought food, water and insulin with him.
He told officers that he had run out of the medication and wanted to return to the care center, police said.
Although he appeared to be in good condition, he was taken to Raritan Bay Medical Center in Old Bridge as a precaution, police said.