Homer Billings, the subject of a TBI Silver Alert issued after he left his Tipton County home early Saturday, was found alive Monday night in a remote, wooded area of Lake County, authorities said.
Billings, who has a medical condition, was located by a Tipton County sheriff’s deputy at approximately 7:20 p.m. Monday, lying in dense terrain not far from where a game camera had photographed him on foot the day before.
“First, let us give God the glory for the divine intervention to lead us to Mr. Billings,” Tipton County Sheriff Shannon Beasley said. “This was truly a team effort involving many agencies, first responders, family and individuals who refused to give up.”
He was dehydrated, hungry, and exhausted but responsive, and was carried out by Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers to a waiting UTV before being reunited with his family around 8 p.m.
He was taken by ambulance from the command post to a nearby medical facility.
Billings left his home in the early morning hours of Aug. 29, prompting a Silver Alert.
Using automatic license plate reader technology, deputies traced his path north, placing him in Dyersburg around 6:30 a.m. Saturday. From there, the trail split: cellphone data pointed to Caruthersville, Mo., while a tracking system on his vehicle pointed across the Mississippi River to the Tiptonville area of Lake County. Detectives obtained search warrants for more precise data from both devices, but both had stopped transmitting usable location information by the time investigators could act.
Authorities in Caruthersville and Lake County were notified and began searching their respective areas. On Sunday, surveillance video from a residence on Shepp Road in Lake County showed Billings still in his vehicle Saturday morning, and search efforts shifted there. On Monday, a game camera captured him on foot in a heavily wooded, rural stretch near the river, also in Lake County.
Responders from across West Tennessee converged on the area, including 11 deputies and six fire and rescue personnel from Tipton County. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and Madison County Fire/Search and Rescue set up a command post and coordinated teams searching on foot, by air and with bloodhounds, using GPS and satellite technology to assign specific search areas.
Beasley said the search brought together the TBI, Tennessee Highway Patrol, Madison County Fire/Search and Rescue, Lake County Sheriff’s Office, Lake County EMA, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, the Tennessee Department of Correction, Tiptonville Fire Department, Lake County Fire Department, Ridgely Police Department, Weakley County Sheriff’s Office, Obion County Sheriff’s Office, the U.S. Coast Guard, and Tipton County’s own EMA, fire and sheriff’s personnel, along with the Atoka Fire Department.
Beasley credited the outcome to the combined effort despite tough conditions.
“The extreme heat and dense vegetation was challenging to say the least, but the family of Mr. Billings and we at the Tipton County Sheriff’s Office are grateful for each of you and all of your work to bring Mr. Billings home safely,” he said.