Missing man found safe at brother’s home

FORT KENT – A mentally handicapped man, missing from Fort Kent since Monday night, was located Thursday morning at the home of a brother in Nashua, N.H.

David Ditson, 18, a ward of the state who was living with a foster family in Violette Settlement in Fort Kent, talked with Fort Kent Police Chief Kenneth Michaud on Thursday. He was at the home of brother George Ditson.

Ditson last was seen at 8:50 p.m. Monday. There were more than 10 sightings of him on Monday, and then nothing, Michaud said. He last was seen carrying his fishing pole and riding his red bicycle.

Law enforcement officials feared he might have drowned.

Ditson, who police said has the mind of an 8- to 10-year-old, had left his foster home Monday morning to go fishing.

Police believe Ditson was transported to New Hampshire by his natural father, George Ditson Sr. Michaud said the father denies the allegation.

The telephone call ended a two-day search that included numerous volunteers, members of a summer school search and rescue program at the University of Maine at Fort Kent, and a large number of wardens from the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife who came to the St. John Valley from many areas of the state north of Greenville.

“He [David Ditson] told me he wanted to go see his brother in New Hampshire, and his father brought him there,” the visibly tired police chief said.

“He’s OK,” Michaud said in a telephone interview Thursday.

Police located George Ditson Sr.’s home and workplace in New Hampshire and Massachusetts on Tuesday, but they could not find him.

Michaud said police in Deerfield, N.H., and Lawrence, Mass., watched the home and workplace but could not locate the elder Ditson.

Finally he was spotted going to work, and police questioned him. Michaud said he denied seeing his mentally handicapped son. He told police the last time he talked with his son was two weeks ago.

Michaud said he was told by a sister of the missing man that he was in Nashua, N.H.

“She said David was in Nashua, at a brother’s house,” Michaud said. “After we tried to talk with him, and he wouldn’t, he called Thursday morning. He is a ward of the state, but I don’t know what the state will do about all of this.”

Michaud was overwhelmed by the effort of volunteers and Maine wardens.

“The [DIF&W] were really, really good. They did all kinds of work, and brought in a lot of game wardens,” Michaud said. “They set up a command post at UMFK, and we all worked together in this effort.

He said game wardens searched riverbanks of the St. John and Fish rivers, and area woods. They also used volunteers to assist them in the effort.

Wardens brought in dogs, boats, an airplane and ATVs for the search. Volunteers called in and signed up in the effort. Wardens and ATVers searched the sides of ATV trails for miles, thinking he might have gone off the path.

Michaud said his dispatchers were taking in 500 calls a day on Tuesday and Wednesday. People called in bits of information.

“My dispatchers did a fantastic job these two days,” Michaud said.