Funereal walkabout
Police, firefighters search for missing man
Staff writer
A 72-year-old man who walked away from a funeral visitation Thursday sparked a search that brought police, deputies, and firefighters to look for him.
Marion’s interim police chief, Zach Hudlin, said Brad Yazel, who owns Yazel-Megli Funeral Home, 205 Elm St., phoned dispatchers at 7:30 p.m. to report that Kevin Harris, who lives in the Kansas City area, had walked away and no one knew where he had gone.
Hudlin, off duty at the time, was called to help with the search along with sheriff’s deputies.
Marion firefighters, having a department meeting at the time, helped as well.
An area of town from Elm St. to 1st St., from south of Main St. to as far north as the city shop on Orchard St., was searched.
“Everything west of Elm St. was searched multiple times,” Hudlin said.
Someone at Central Park told police they had seen the man walk past.
Searchers were concerned Harris might have gotten into a wooded area along Luta Creek and perhaps ended up in the water.
A nature trail behind the park also was searched.
About an hour later, Harris showed up at Historic Elgin Hotel, where he had a room.
“He showed back up at his hotel room,” Hudlin said. “I’m shocked he managed to evade all of us. There were a lot of us out looking for him.”
Hudlin said it was “by far” the most exciting thing police dealt with all week.
A silver alert was not called because officials knew he was on foot and unlikely to get far.