It was a sad end to a massive search to find an elderly Alzheimer's patient from the town of Lono. Saturday Hot Spring County Sheriff's deputies say they found 75 year old A.C. Cunningham dead in the woods. Earlier this week people searched the woods and streets to find A.C. Cunningham, it saddened many that they never could find him. Saturday, not even a week after he went missing, authorities say a group of women discovered his body. It terrified them because they knew him personally.
It's not how 75 year old A.C. Cunningham's friends and family wanted the story to end. Donna Jones has known Cunningham all her life. She lives next door and remembers when he went missing Monday night. "A lot of us got in vehicles and started going up and down the road, walking through fields. I walked all through mine,” she recalls.
Saturday morning a relative stopped by the Shell's convenience store in Friendship to post signs. "[They] wanted us to help out to see if we could help find the man,” said store clerk Brittini Loy.
They didn’t know just moments later authorities would find Cunningham in a wooded area south of Lono. "A group of ladies who had known him since childhood ...came out here looking and found him in the woods about 500 meters out here,” said Corporal John Teeter.
Relatives told authorities the Alzheimer's patient woke up around 10 Monday night and left his home. "I figure he had to be thinking about an old home or somewhere else he was trying to get to,” Jones said.
Outside of Cunningham's home Saturday, friends and family comforted each other after getting the bad news. "When they first told me, I just started crying…I just didn't want him to die like this. I don't think anybody did,” Jones said. She says Cunningham is well respected in the community because he once served as a pastor and worked as a middle school custodian for 17 years. Jones says though he suffered from Alzheimer's, she never noticed any symptoms until just the past few weeks.
"I supposed he succumbed to the weather. The first night I was out looking for him, it was 23 degrees,” said Corporal Teeter. Authorities do not suspect any foul play but the body will soon be sent to the state crime for confirmation.
