A Harrisburg man is still unaccounted for after a full day of searching. 64 year old Wendell Williams went missing after 9am Saturday morning. Williams told his son by phone he was going to harm himself and nobody would find him. We spoke with Adam Monday evening and he says it’s completely out of character for his dad. Family says they immediately contacted law enforcement and they began tracking his phone, first on Maloney Road, then the Wabash River bottoms, then Highway 141 and finally, Wendell Williams’ cell phone was last pinged around 5pm Saturday evening about 11 and a half miles northeast of Omaha. The family says the tracking movement is possibly the result of Williams’ phone searching for service and bouncing off multiple towers in the area and he could potentially have become stationary once he was in the bottoms. His loved ones assume his phone battery has gone dead. Adam says his dad doesn’t suffer from dementia or have any known diagnosis.
The search to this point has been strictly family and friends, though it’s growing and folks scoured the area all day Monday. Adam says the search for his father will resume Tuesday morning with friends, family and anyone wanting to join in at 10am from the Shawneetown mall. He says folks that want to help should be concentrating their search from as far north as Carmi, south to Cave in Rock, as far west as Marion and east to Morganfield, though it is possible Posey County, Indiana could be a location Williams would’ve gone. Searchers that have horses, ATV’s, or drones are also welcome.
A facebook page titled Help Find Wendell Williams is serving as the point of reference for those interested in assisting. The Saline County Sheriff’s Department put out a silver alert late Monday afternoon. Illinois State Police are aware but not involved in the search formally at this point. Williams was last known to be driving a black Jeep Cherokee with the license plate V126701.
