An elderly Star Valley man with dementia has been located and returned home after being found in Salt Lake City.

Michael Black, 91 of Afton, was reported missing to the Afton Police Department on Tuesday, November 26. Black’s wife, 77-year-old Avril Black, said he had been missing since Monday.

“This isn’t the first time Black has wondered off,” Afton Police Chief Jason Romberg told SVI. “He has wondered off multiple times before and had been found previously as far away as Jackson where he has friends. But we’ve previously been able to find him within a few hours.”

According to Romberg, a missing person’s report was filed on Tuesday morning. Tips came in as to Black’s whereabouts, including reports of him hitchhiking through Bear Lake and being picked up in Ovid, Idaho and again in Garden City, Utah heading towards Logan, Utah and eventually making his way down to Salt Lake City, Utah. As police continued to search, on Wednesday Black was picked up at a bus stop by an LDS missionary and taken to the Rescue Mission of Salt Lake. After learning he was from Afton, the shelter notified the Afton Police Department on Thanksgiving morning.

According to a news report on KSL, Avril said she spotted her husband during the nightly newscast on Wednesday during a segment about serving Thanksgiving meals. According to Chief Romberg, Avril never mentioned to him that she had seen her husband on the news, but that he had received the call from the shelter on Thanksgiving morning.

When speaking to KSL, Avril expressed her gratitude for everyone that looked out for Michael Black, especially the Afton Police Department, the missionary, and the staff at the Rescue Home of Salt Lake.

“The police have been wonderful to us,” Avril Black said. “And the rescue home, they gave him warm clothes and a blanket and really took care of him.”