Missing Man with Dementia Is Found Safe as 'Speechless' Wife Spots Him on TV at Shelter Over 200 Miles Away

Michael Black, 91, who lives in Wyoming, was seen by his wife Avril, 77, in the back of a Salt Lake City news segment about a homeless shelter feeding people on Thanksgiving

KSL News/Youtube Michael Black is spotted on KSL-TV news segment

KSL News/Youtube

Michael Black is spotted on KSL-TV news segment

A missing man with dementia has been reunited with his wife after she spotted him on the news over 200 miles away from their Wyoming home.

Michael Black, 91, found his way to the Rescue Mission of Salt Lake homeless shelter after hitchhiking to Salt Lake City from their home in the town of Afton, the Associated Press reported.

Michael's wife Avril, 77, discovered her husband's whereabouts after watching a Thanksgiving segment on KSL-TV on how the homeless shelter helps feed those in need over the holidays.

Michael, who had been missing for nearly three days, was seen in the background of the news, much to his wife's relief, KSL-TV reported.

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“I put the 10 p.m. [local time] news on,” Avril told the outlet of turning on the television on Wednesday, Nov. 27; the day before Thanksgiving.

“I didn’t know where he was,” she said of her husband, who was diagnosed with dementia eight years ago.

Google Maps A photo outside the Rescue Mission of Salt Lake homeless shelter

Google Maps

A photo outside the Rescue Mission of Salt Lake homeless shelter

Related: Two Hero Dogs Help Save Woman with Dementia Who Spent Over 24 Hours Lost in the Utah Heat

“You were just filming around and I thought, ‘Well wait a minute. I’m sure I saw Michael.’ So I paused the TV, set it back and yeah, sure enough there he was!” Avril told the station of seeing her husband on the screen.

“I mean it was so unreal, I saw the picture!” she added to the outlet. “I was so relieved, I actually slept that night knowing he was safe.”

“I’m speechless. It just blows me away that that happened. Boy does he have some guardian angel looking after him. And you guys, thank goodness that you were there,” Avril continued, thanking the Afton Police Department and the team at the Rescue Mission of Salt Lake for looking after her husband.

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“The police have been wonderful to us,” she told the outlet. “And the rescue home, they gave him warm clothes and a blanket and really took care of him.”

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Per the AP, Avril had reported Michael missing on Nov. 25 and police managed to "map his journey through southern Idaho and into northern Utah, where the trail went cold," the news agency reported.

Chapel Lead at the Rescue Mission, Jay Rouse, told KSL-TV he'd gotten a call from a good Samaritan who had picked up an elderly man at a bus station on Nov. 26.

"It was about 8:30-9:00 p.m. [local time] and normally, we’re closed at that time but I said, ‘Bring him by.’ Turned out he was 91 years old, a Korean War Vet. He was a really sweet guy,” Rouse told the outlet.

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“I realized the sweet old man was in need of some help,” he added.

Afton Police Chief, Jason Romberg, told the station Michael "is a very, very congenial and a jovial person when you talk to him," adding, “He warms his way and you think, ‘What can we do to help you?’ ”

“This is not the first time,” the officer said of him going missing, per the outlet. “But we’ve previously found him within a few hours close to home.”

Romberg and the Rescue Mission of Salt Lake did not immediately respond when contacted by PEOPLE.

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