Residential care patient found alive, well

The staff at Chapel Ridge Residential Care Facility were relieved that a patient who went missing early Monday morning was found Tuesday morning.

Melissa Kinzel, office manager at the Washington County facility, said a staff member was coming to work Tuesday morning about 7:30 a.m. and saw Scott “Scotty” Freeman coming out of the woods and looking up at a sign near the St. Francois County line.

She said he was wet, muddy, a little scraped up and a little dehydrated but otherwise fine. His blood sugar was OK. They had been worried about his insulin.

“He’s doing well,” she said. He was taken to the hospital for dehydration.

Kinzel said Freeman told them he had been way back in the woods. She thanks God that he found his way to the road.

Staff members had searched for him in the area Monday but were unable to find him. They asked for the help of the Washington County Sheriff’s Department and the public.

Freeman walked away from the facility off Highway 8 seven-tenths of a mile from the St. Francois County line between 3 and 5 a.m. Monday. He suffers from dementia due to a traumatic head injury. Kinzel said Freeman is a very sweet man but hard to understand.