Authorities Search For Missing Amish Man (Pennsylvania) – UPDATED: Man Found “Alive And Well”

An Amish man has gone missing in central Pennsylvania’s Blair County. He was last seen yesterday (Thursday, June 17) and this is story is just breaking. From WTAJ:

TYRONE, Pa. (WTAJ) — Multiple organizations are searching for a missing Amish man in the Sinking Valley area Friday.

Pennsylvania State Police (PSP), Lost and Hound and Heaven Sent all have dogs in the area searching for the 38-year-old man. He was reported as last being seen around 2 p.m. Thursday, July 17, in the area of Silver Barn Road and Hileman Road.

The man’s name has not been released at this time. Due to religious beliefs, no pictures were available.

Bellwood Department 34, Neptune Fire Department, Excelsior Fire and Blazing Arrow Hook and Ladder are all searching, along with a PSP drone and helicopter.

So the man was last seen just around 24 hours ago at the time of posting. Which on the one hand doesn’t seem that long.

But on the other, if someone doesn’t return home – and the Amish tend to have well-established habits of coming and going – that is obviously going to raise alarm.

You also have to assume it was the man’s family who alerted authorities, and on balance the Amish are probably a bit slower to get authorities involved in their matters, so that is another thing to consider.

Not mentioned in the linked article, but they have actually been searching since yesterday.

It’s also not mentioned in the article, but the video report (below) by WTAJ notes that he was last seen at a donut shop – Hollow View Donuts on Silver Barn Road.

Between the police, K-9 units, multiple fire departments and helicopter and drone, there are a lot of people and resources looking for this man. Additional K-9 units are expected as well.

That all suggests that there is significant reason for concern for this man’s well-being.

Sinking Valley (the name I know it by) is a small-ish community. I visited once many years ago when it was much smaller, just one church district.

Now there are four. It’s not too far from the Big Valley community and was founded by Renno (black top buggy) Amish from that settlement.

There’s one other odd thing to mention here. In April, there was a separate story of a central New York Amish man having gone missing, who was later found, reportedly in a large city several states away.

That is obviously unrelated, but it’s just strange to see two stories of missing middle-aged Amish men in such close succession.

I’m going to refrain from other speculation, and just hope that this will be updated soon with good news.  Will update this post accordingly.

UPDATE: Missing Amish Man Found

The story has been updated with a single line:

John Swarey was found alive and well, according to state police.

Great news and great effort by all those who joined in the search. I do find it odd that they are releasing his name now, but didn’t do so while the search was ongoing.

Also from the story:

Corporal Hileman with PSP said the cooperation between the different agencies and the Amish community coming together to assist in the search was promising.

“From a law enforcement perspective, it’s very encouraging, first of all,” Hileman said. “And second of all, it’s very helpful to have additional manpower and to see even the Amish community come together in the way that they have. It’s been a remarkable.”

I doubt we’ll get more official info on what exactly happened here, but of course I’m glad this one has a happy ending.

Update 2: Here’s the video report. Not much more in here other than the detail that he went for a walk on Thursday and didn’t return.

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