November 21, 2016

Lincoln man located after becoming lost while hunting

On Friday, November 18, Ronald Freelove, 69 of Lincoln, Maine was reported lost by his son Keith Freelove of New Hampshire. Keith said his father left their camp on the Kingsbury Road in Bradley, at approximately 12:45 PM. He was going to walk through the woods and meet up with him by 4:00 PM back at camp. A search was started utilizing K-9 and ground searchers. At approximately 12:30 on Saturday, Ronald Freelove was located by Jake Letendre from MESARD and his K-9 Reese.

During the night, Mr. Freelove stayed mobile as his lighter to make a fire was not working. Mr. Freelove lost his hat, which had a compass pinned to it. A second compass was lost after the lanyard caught on a bush dragging the compass from his pocket along with a whistle and pair of gloves. Ronald used all his ammo trying to signal for help throughout the night. He was located approximately three quarters of a mile from where he started and was assisted out of the woods by searchers. Freelove was checked out by medical personnel from Milford Rescue and Old Town ambulance crew before going back to camp.

The Warden Service would like to thank *MESARD, MASAR, Milford Rescue, and Old Town Ambulance. The Maine Association for Search and Rescue (MASAR) is a non-profit organization that promotes and develops search and rescue resources for the state of Maine. MASAR provides training and certification for search and rescue volunteers using nationally-recognized standards. See mainesearchandrescue.org for more information.