GPS could have saved life of elderly missing Florence man
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The desert is a very treacherous place and where he was at there was nobody out there. There was probably no way that he was going to get to anybody, not without walking about 10 or 12 miles. There was absolutely nobody out there.”
What should have been a 10-mile drive turned into a fatal 200-mile odyssey for a 91-year-old Florence resident.
George Thompson Robertson left his home at 9 a.m. Sept. 23 to go to a pharmacy in Coolidge and have lunch with some friends. He never made it.
Late last month, his remains were found about a mile-and-a-half from where his car had been stranded in a wash about 10-15 miles south off the Interstate 10 West headed toward California. Robertson’s cause of death has not yet been determined.
Since Robertson disappeared in September, daytime temperatures in the region of the search were still high, dropping to sharp lows in the evening. Robertson was 5’7” and weighed 140 pounds. He was last seen wearing a gray polo shirt, gray shorts and possibly a Seattle Seahawks cap.
“With the help of Pinal County, Navajo County Sheriff's Department, La Paz County Sheriff's Department and a whole host of volunteers, we found [Robertson] in the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge about a mile and a half east of where his vehicle was,” said Florence Police Chief Bruce Walls.
Florence Police and other authorities tried tracking Robertson through his cell phone’s GPS. When they could get no more traffic from Robertson’s phone, Walls speculated that was when the phone’s battery died.
“Initially, when we took the report, there were some indications of some medical issues, but nothing made us concerned that he may have been confused or anything like that,” Walls said.
It also appears Robertson had not been in any sort of accident that left him stranded in the wash.
“Right now, from what we have determined, there wasn't a breakdown with the car,” Walls said. “It appears, and I’m making a guess here, that he got in that wash and tried to go and turn around and then got his front vehicle stuck in the sand. When we found the vehicle, the front wheels were almost buried.”
Walls added there was no note or anything to indicate why Robertson was so far from his home.
The search for Robertson was an extensive one involving a helicopter, ATVs and officers and volunteers on foot.
“When we finished our investigation and we saw that there was no more activity on his credit cards or on his telephone, we started focusing in the area of the vehicle,” Walls said. “On the initial search La Paz County did they were doing a 5-mile radius.
“When Florence PD went out, we were doing a 1-mile radius and we were doing that based on his age, but still could not find him. In the last search in January, we increased the search to a 1.5-mile radius.”
Walls added that finding Robertson was made more difficult by the fact the terrain in the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge is not flat but rolling.
“You can easily miss someone being out there,” Walls said.
He added while the outcome was the worst-case scenario, “we were able to go ahead and bring a little bit of closure to his wife and to his son.”
Unfortunately, Walls said, Robertson’s type of case is a familiar one.
“This is not the first time that we've had some of our elderly citizens get in vehicles and get lost,” he said.
Walls advised all residents to have fully charged phones before going on a journey, as well as devices to recharge the phone. Even if the phone is out of calling range, authorities can still pick up signals from the GPS.
“If for some reason you get lost, we can go ahead and track you by your phone, and there are a number of devices on the market that have a GPS in them, such as watches, necklaces and those kinds of things,” Walls said. “If you are aware that you have a family member that has a propensity of doing this, it would be highly wise that you have some type of location device on that person.”
Robertson’s car did have a GPS system, but Walls said it had not been activated.
Wall also advised anyone stranded on or off the road as Robertson was to stay in their vehicle to make it easier for authorities to find them.
He also said the second friends and family believe that something is wrong, they should call police immediately. There is no 24-hour waiting period.
“The desert is a very treacherous place and where he was at there was nobody out there,” Walls said. “There was probably no way that he was going to get to anybody, not without walking about 10 or 12 miles. There was absolutely nobody out there.”
Janet Perez News Editor | Queen Creek &
San Tan Valley @AzNewsmedia
Meet Janet Janet Perez joined Independent Newsmedia as editor of the Queen Creek Independent and Florence Independent in 2020. She started her career in 1989 with the Gannett-owned El Paso Times. In 1992, she moved to Tempe and has worked in newspapers, magazines, radio and television. She left Arizona for three years to work at New Mexico State University and Baylor University before returning to work at Arizona State University. Missing the business, she went back to journalism in 2017.
Community: A long-time pet owner, she supports animal welfare causes.
Education: University of Texas at El Paso with a BA in journalism and a minor in political science.
Random Fact: She had a head full of random facts.
Hobbies: Reading, watching documentaries, cooking and playing with her dogs.
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