By Brenna R. Kelly
The Cincinnati Enquirer

BURLINGTON - While sheriff's deputies in cruisers, on horseback and on a bike searched for a missing 69-year-old man with Alzheimer's disease Monday morning, Mark Ihrig sat down at a computer.

About 12 minutes later, a woman walked into her side yard, looked around and found the man sitting on a hill in his pajamas.

Anne McBee knew to look outside her Burlington Pike home because of a telephone call from the Communicator/Geo Notify, a tool Boone County authorities can use to alert residents to an emergency.

"This system is awesome," said McBee, a lawyer who works from her home on 5 acres. "I didn't know we had this system."

Monday was the second time in four years the system commonly called "Reverse 911" has helped find a missing person, said Ihrig, deputy director of Boone County Emergency Management. In 2001, a missing 8-year-old Verona boy was found in 18 minutes after calls went out.

The seven-year-old system is also used for weather emergencies and hazardous material spills.

"It's fantastic," said Judy Schuhwerk, whose husband Richard wandered away Monday morning. "I can't brag it up enough."

By Monday afternoon Richard Schuhwerk, who is in the second stage of Alzheimer's, was "doing fine," she said. "He's had a bath and breakfast."

When Judy woke up that morning at about 7:15 a.m., her husband wasn't in bed. After a quick search of their Darlington Farms condo she called the sheriff's office.

Soon, three deputies on foot, two on horseback, one on a bike and one on an ATV were searching the area.

But it was Ihrig's manpower that paid off. Ihrig used the Communicator to call about 1,200 phone numbers in a one-mile radius.

When McBee answered the phone at 8:30 a.m., she first thought it was a telemarketer. Then she heard the message describing Schuhwerk in his socks and pajamas.

"I told my husband, 'I just got the strangest call,'" she said.

As they searched outside, McBee saw Schuhwerk sitting where he had fallen down a hill. She called 911. As deputies arrived she got Schuhwerk a pair of her husband's shoes so he could walk out of the brush.

Schuhwerk was found so quickly that the Communicator system didn't even get through calling the 1,200 numbers, Ihrig said.

"I never cease to be amazed," he said. "This is a great system. We are fortunate to have this in Boone County."

Communicator/Geo Notify

The Communicator calls only homes with listed numbers. To have your unlisted number added to the system, call Boone County Emergency Management at (859) 334-2117.

---

E-mail bkelly@enquirer.com