At 3:15 AM on March 18, 2025, Fauquier County Emergency Communications Center dispatchers received a call from the daughter and caregiver of a 91-year-old male. She reported that she had searched the entire home but could not find her father. And the back door was left open. Her father, she explained, suffers from dementia and is an enrolled Project Lifesaver client through the Fauquier County Sheriff’s Office (FCSO).
Project Lifesaver International (PLI) is a public safety non-profit organization that provides training and technology used to protect, and when necessary, quickly locate individuals with cognitive disorders who are prone to wandering. Each client is provided with a bracelet which emits a unique frequency that can be captured by searchers using receiving equipment.
Dispatchers sent deputies and EMS personnel to the scene, then called to wake Seargent J. Welch, a Fauquier County Sheriff’s Office deputy trained in the PLI program. Arriving at the missing gentleman’s home in The Plains, Virginia, Welch began taking signal readings around the home and then in larger concentric circles. His hand-held antennae receiver was still not capturing any signal. Walking into a wooded area near a creek and up onto a slight knoll, Welch’s equipment picked up one slight signal emitting a quiet low beeping sound. By adjusting his position to face northeast the signal became stronger and louder as he walked through the darkness away from the residence.
Crossing onto a neighbor’s property, Welch’s equipment led him directly to the man who had wandered away, inside the dark rear seat compartment of his neighbor’s vehicle. EMS personnel performed an assessment, and he was returned to his home and daughter. The search took only 33 minutes.
The FCSO currently has 18 enrolled PLI clients. The program is funded by private donations which pay for the bracelets and batteries which are replaced every 60 days. More information about the PLI program is available on the FCSO website.
