Missing Maine man walks up to newsman covering his disappearance

Norm Karkos had just finished a live news report about Robert McDonough, 72, who had gone missing the day before, when a slender, older man walked down the road behind him.

The camera was still rolling.

“How are you?” Karkos, an anchor-reporter for WMTW Channel 8 in Portland, asked the man as he passed with his hands jammed into his pockets.

“Good,” the man replied.

Karkos squinted at the man as he passed by, and then continued to squint, his mouth hanging open.

Minutes after Karkos had given viewers an update Tuesday morning about the missing McDonough, the reporter was looking right at him.

McDonough was safe and sound after the TV crew called the Maine Warden Service, realizing they’d found a man who had wandered away from home Monday afternoon and survived near-freezing temperatures overnight.

“Well sometimes, timing is everything,” Karkos said in his report as Maine Warden Service officials arrived and checked on McDonough, who officials said has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. “The gentleman behind us, that is Robert McDonough. We were doing our last live shot at the bottom of the hour and we saw a gentleman walk up behind us, and he identified himself as Bob McDonough.”

Family members and game wardens had been searching for McDonough with dogs and ATVs, Doug Rafferty, spokesman for the Maine Warden Service, told the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday.

McDonough had been missing for about 15 hours.

“He is safe, he is alert,” Karkos reported. “We just saw a little bit of blood on his hand and on his blue shirt that he’s wearing, on his right elbow, but he appears to be OK.”

See WMTW’s video of the remarkable encounter below:

ALSO:

Accused Fort Hood shooter wants to represent himself

Blake Sheldon to aid tornado victims, more severe weather ahead

Into the Wild: 3 hikers rescued near scene of fatal Alaska adventure