An elderly Indiana man who went missing 10 days ago in the Nevada desert has been found dead and his wife is recovering in the hospital after their RV got stuck in the mud, relatives said.
Ronnie Barker, 72, and his 69-year-old wife, Beverly, were found by rescuers late Tuesday after they vanished on March 27 while driving through western Nevada.
The couple’s abandoned RV was located in muddy, mountainous terrain near Silver Peak, their nephew, Travis Peters, said in a Facebook post.
The Kia car they had been towing behind the RV had been removed by the time rescuers reached the area.
It wasn’t immediately clear how far away the couple were found, but their family believes they would have set off looking for help in the secondary vehicle after the RV became bogged down.
Hours after the couple were located, their children received a text from one of their phones asking for help, Peters said.
“A single text message was received to Ronnie and Bev’s daughters,” he said. “That text message was trying to send out and I can only assume that as Bev was airlifted to the hospital, or perhaps their belongings were brought down the mountain, that message finally came through. But now we know it arrived too late.”
Beverly was airlifted to a Reno hospital, where she is still undergoing treatment. Her exact condition wasn’t immediately known.
It is not yet clear when her husband died.
Authorities had previously revealed during their search that the Barkers both suffered from diabetes and Ronnie had also previously battled cancer.
The couple, who were due to return home to Indianapolis this week, had set off on a cross-country road trip last month and were en route to meet friends in Tucson, Arizona, when they disappeared.
They were reported missing by their children after they failed to meet their friends.
