An elderly man who wandered away from a family member’s home Sunday evening returned early Monday morning, cold, but otherwise unharmed, the Gasconade County Sheriff’s Department reports. 

Marvin Bickmeyer, 77, retuned home Monday morning unaware there had been an extensive search conducted for him on Sunday night by Owensville firemen, Gasconade County Sheriff's deputies and a Missouri State Highway Patrol helicopter crew. He was reported missing from the family’s home east of Mt. Sterling at 5:55 p.m. Nov. 1.

He was last seen at around 4:30 p.m. Sunday sitting on the porch of the home along U.S. 50 near Fowler Road, 2.5 miles east of Mt. Sterling. Bickmeyer reportedly suffers from Alzheimer’s disease along with conditions of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

“He wandered into the house this morning,” said Esphorst on Monday. “He said he wasn’t sure where he went. He laid down in the grass and went to sleep. He didn’t know where he went.”

A search party of between 30 and 35 assembled Sunday night and checked county road ditches, machine sheds, barns, and abandoned trailers and farmhouses across the area until about 11 p.m. when the efforts were halted for the night. “We had all kinds of volunteers with ATVs. We searched all over,” Esphorst said.

The patrol’s helicopter made two sweeps of the area but were unable to detect him despite using a heat-sensing imaging devise.

Esphorst said Bickmeyer’s family members said he told them only that he was cold. “They were fixing him breakfast,” said Esphorst who noted they had planned to resume the search that morning if he had not returned on his own.

“Luckily is wasn’t too cold out that night,” said Esphorst. “He was cold and wet but otherwise okay.”

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