CONTACT:
Lieutenant James Kneeland
603-744-5470
August 10, 2020
Newbury, NH – On Thursday, August 6, at 6:30 p.m., NH Fish and Game Conservation Officers were notified that an 81-year-old man was missing from his residence on Sutton Road in Newbury. Conservation Officers along with volunteer searchers from New England K-9 and the Upper Valley Wilderness Response Team responded to the area and searched throughout the night as temperatures dipped into the fifties. No evidence of the missing man was found and at around 4:30 a.m. the search was suspended until daylight.
By 8:30 a.m. on August 7, searchers including Conservation Officers, volunteers from New England K-9, members of the Upper Valley Wilderness Response Team, local volunteers, and a Blackhawk Helicopter from the Army National Guard resumed the search of the wooded area off Sutton Road near the Sutton/Newbury town line. Searchers faced steep rugged terrain as well as vegetated swamps that hampered their movement. At 9:40 a.m. a searcher from New England K-9 located the missing man almost 0.5 miles in the woods from his residence, unresponsive but alive. As rescuers warmed the man his condition improved and he was carried to a nearby woods road where an ambulance was waiting to transport him to New London Hospital for evaluation.
The man, identified as Michael Budrow, was met at the hospital by family members. The success of this search mission would not have happened as quickly if not for the efforts and dedication of search and rescue volunteers and Conservation Officers. Many of these searchers returned to assist in the search after only resting for a few hours. The teamwork displayed during this search is something the citizens of New Hampshire should be proud of, and is the foundation of how search and rescue works between the many agencies that participate in these missions in the Granite State.