Deputies with the sheriff’s office man tracking team found a Tabor City area man safe and sound after a harrowing few hours Tuesday.
Ronald Gore, 58, was reported missing by his wife around 9:30 p.m., according to the heriff’s office. She told deputies that she had last heard from her husband at 7:15 p.m., and his cell phone battery was dying. Gore was walking in the woods across from the family home, the sheriff’s office said, but he got disoriented.
Mrs. Gore used her car horn to signal Gore and lead him out, the report said, but was unsuccessful.
Deputies using a forward looking infrared radar (FLIR) drone and K9 Lily were called to the scene, with County Emergency Management personnel. The search teams found footprints, and around 1 a.m., found Gore at a hunting cabin about a mile away in South Carolina.
“Mr. Gore was in good health and ready to go home,” Sheriff Jody Greene said in a press release. “He was reunited with his wife, who hugged and thanked every deputy on the scene.”
Greene thanked the search crews for their “hard work and dedication.
“These men and women left their family at home to come out and serve our fellow citizens. We are glad this was a positive outcome and wish the Gore family well,” Greene said in the release.
