AUGUSTA, Maine – Game Wardens and their K9s were busy last night, locating two different groups of people who became lost in the woods.

In Porter last night, Game Wardens received a call of a missing hunter at 6:00 p.m. Jude Bradley, age 66 of Porter, was last seen heading into the woods around 3:00 p.m. to go deer hunting. Bradley’s wife reported him missing when he didn’t return home from hunting, then she located his vehicle on a private road near Ten Mile Brook in Porter.

After finding his vehicle, two of Bradley’s relatives entered the woods to try and locate him and they two became lost.

Upon arrival at the vehicle and with no cell phone service available in the area, game wardens fired three shots in succession hoping to hear a return shot from the missing hunter in order to get a direction of where he was.

With no response to the successive shots, Game Warden Corporal Lucas Bellanceau and K9 Breezy began an air scent search of the thickly wooded area to try and locate the missing group. After a few hours, K9 Breezy picked up human scent and ascended up a ridge where her GPS collar receiver indicated that she was working scent back and forth in a small area.

Game Warden Corporal Bellanceau hiked up the ridge and as he got closer he could hear muffled voices and then Breezy started barking indicating she had located the missing people at approximately 10:30 last night. Once there, Bellanceau found the trio cold, but in good health.

It appears that Bradley’s relatives found him shortly after entering the woods, but then became disoriented in the dark and thick brush after finding him. With fading flashlights and no navigation tools, they walked over a mile in the wrong direction before they were tracked down by and found by K9 Breezy. The three were cold and tired, but otherwise in good health and returned home upon hiking out to their vehicle.

In Old Town last night, two people who wandered off a trail as it got dark were located by Game Warden Sergeant Alan Gillis, Game Warden Shannon Fish, and Game Warden Alan Curtis and his K9 Sig. Lisa Morelli, age 33 of Bangor, and Erik Jackson, age 34 of Ellsworth, were hiking on the trails near Perch Pond in Old Town. As it began to get dark last night and without a flashlight, Morelli and Jackson became disoriented and wandered of the trail.

Before she her phone died, Morelli was able to call her parents, and let them know they were lost, and planned to stay where they were. Old Town Police located their vehicle at the trail head on Poplar Road. Three Game Wardens and a game Warden K9 went to the trail head, where they were able to track the missing pair, and found them approximately ¾ of a mile into the woods.

Contact: Mark Latti, MDIFW Communications Director, 207-592-1339 (cell) mark.latti@maine.gov