CONTACT:
CO Thomas Houghton – 603-352-4022
NH Fish and Game Region 4 Office
15 Ash Brook Court
Keene, NH 03431
April 8, 2021
Hillsboro, NH – On Thursday, April 8, 2021 at approximately 6:30 p.m., New Hampshire Fish and Game Conservation Officers responded along with officers from The Hillsboro Police Department to Poverty Plain Road in Hillsboro. Family members were reporting that 80-year-old Rita Morris of Hillsboro had not returned home after walking her dog. Family and friends had been searching nearby roads and trails prior to the arrival of law enforcement without success. Hillsboro Fire Department personnel arrived on scene with a Utility-Terrain Vehicle (UTV) to search nearby class VI roads near a large swamp. The Hillsboro Police Department deployed K-9 Gibbs and began searching from Morris’s last known location.
At approximately 7:45 p.m., the Hillsboro Police K-9 unit and Hillsboro Fire Fighters were reporting that they could hear a dog barking in the distance coming from a nearby swamp. The swamp made it difficult for rescuers to get to the barking dog. Eventually the Hillsboro Police K-9 Unit made contact with Morris in the swamp after hearing her yelling for help. When Morris was found she was up to her knees in water. Morris was uninjured but was too cold and tired to walk out of the woods on her own. She was eventually transported out of the woods by her son on an All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV). Morris was transported to Danforth Corners Road to an awaiting Hillsboro Fire Department Ambulance and was transported to Concord Hospital for further evaluation at 9:49 p.m.