A missing 75-year-old retired school teacher was found alive after he fell over an embankment in the Maine woods and got stuck in a bog for four days.
The survivor, Mike Altmaier of New Sharon, was discovered by a game warden and K-9. At the time he went missing, Altmaier was headed to his volunteer job as a historian at Camp Kawanhee but never made it.
“That was when we kind of realized that he wasn’t where he ought to have been. And nobody could get in touch with him,” Camp Museum Curator Lexi Innes told WGME13.
Law enforcement searched for over three days with no sign of Altmaier — until a breakthrough came when his car was found at a scenic overlook at the Mount Blue State Park, a short drive from the camp in Weld.
Altmaier later told his younger brother, who goes by B.A., that he’d hiked up the overlook to get photos of Webb Lake for his presentation at the camp that day when he fell.
“He said it probably wasn’t the smartest thing he did, ’cause he’s 75. And he slipped on moss, I found out later. And just went down and over a cliff,” B.A. Altmaier told WGME13.
The next morning, wardens with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife searched the surrounding area, which led Game Warden Kayle Hamilton and his K-9 Ashe to the missing septuagenarian at 3:45 pm., according to WGME.
Altmaier fell over a ledged embankment and “likely became disoriented” from the fall, police say.
“(He) was in surprisingly good condition despite spending the last 4 days laying in the area of the bog,” the Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife said in a statement.
Volunteers and EMTs rushed to his location to provide medical attention. Two hours later, a helicopter rescue operation retrieved the retired history teacher from the bog he was trapped in.
“I do want to just thank the search party, because they were just unbelievable,” B.A. Altmaier said. “A guy was coming out of the woods. And he had a huge smile on his face. I think he wanted to tell somebody. And he just had the biggest grin and he said, ‘We found him. He’s alive.”
After being airlifted out of the woods, Altmaier was kept overnight at a local hospital.
“I don’t think I could survive out in the woods for four days, especially in the torrential downpour that we had, without any food or water. But he’s a Kawanheean. And he’s very resourceful, clearly,” Innes said.
“He was able to keep himself OK until they found him.”
Altmaier taught history at Bath Junior High School for more than 20 years before retiring, according to CentralMaine.com.