Citizen tip leads to discovery of Palm Coast man missing for four days
A phone call from an observant citizen and fast action by Flagler County Sheriff’s Office deputies saved the life of a 72-year-old Palm Coast man who had been missing for four days.
Family members reported Allyn Schmidt missing and endangered on Monday, December 15. Authorities issued a silver alert, and deputies spent the following days searching for him, interviewing local businesses, and checking areas he was known to visit.
The break in the case came around noon on Friday when a caller reported an abandoned vehicle in a remote wooded area near N. Old Dixie Highway, close to the St. Johns County line. Deputies recognized the vehicle as belonging to Schmidt and immediately began searching the woods on foot.
They found Schmidt about 50 yards from his car. He was unconscious but still alive. Deputies determined he had apparently fallen against a tree, with his neck caught against the trunk in a position that restricted his breathing. Investigators believe he had been trapped in that position for several days without food or water, enduring temperatures that dropped as low as 43 degrees Fahrenheit.
The remote location presented a challenge for rescuers. An ambulance could not reach Schmidt and the deputies in the dense woods. Thinking quickly, deputies carried the unconscious man to his own vehicle and drove him out of the forest themselves.
Once they reached the road, Flagler County Fire Rescue paramedics evaluated Schmidt before transferring him to an ambulance. He was then transported to a landing zone in St. Johns County, where a Trauma One helicopter flew him to an area hospital for treatment.
“A citizen who ‘saw something and said something’ along with the quick thinking and resourcefulness of our deputies, without a doubt, saved this man’s life,” said Sheriff Rick Staly. “By using the victim’s car to transport him to paramedics, they saved minutes when seconds mattered. Ingenuity cannot be trained; I am proud to have deputies at the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office whose instincts are to act heroically in unforeseeable circumstances. I also thank the citizen who called to report a ‘suspicious vehicle.'”
Schmidt is expected to make a full recovery.
