LEBANON, MAINE, Maine — A Lebanon man is grateful to all the people involved, but specifically, one group, who helped him find his wife who went missing over the weekend.
Tammy Millette was reported lost on Saturday after she left her car which had run out of gas on Route 5 in Fryeburg.
Game Wardens along with a canine tracked Millette eight miles to the town of Lovell where she was seen on a store security camera walking by.
Wardens then told her husband, John, that because she was now on the main road and out of the woods, they were ending their search and giving the case back to the state police as a missing person's case.
The problem was after she was already out overnight, Tammy was now mentally exhausted and wasn’t thinking straight.
John Millette says it was a man with Down East Emergency Medicine Institute (DEEMI) search and Rescue, Richard Bowie who insisted they continue searching that night.
Bowie said, “They were going to try and form up a search team first thing the next morning. That would be day three, and I said, 'you can’t wait. You’re facing a situation here where you’ve got a possible hypothermic patient that’s been out there for a day and contact with the ground. It could be fatal, so you have a situation where you got to move or lose her.'”
He said, "She’s going to be looking for a water source or someplace to hunker down for the night, you know, and that’s exactly what it turned out to be,” John Millette said. “When I realized that it was her, I’m like, 'Oh My god.' And I friggin just broke down in tears, and I ran up to her, and I grabbed her, and I started hugging her and kissing her, and at that point, I was ecstatic because I was like 'Oh my god, I found you.'”
Tammy Millette was treated and released from a hospital with mild hypothermia.
John Millette said he told Richard Bowie that he would like to volunteer for DEEMI when they search in the southern part of the state.