Nevada official: Missing Indianapolis couple found after man dies
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH/AP) — An Indianapolis couple missing in Nevada since Sunday has been found, the Nye County, Nevada, Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday night.
Ronnie Barker, 72, and Beverly Barker, 69, were found with their car Tuesday afternoon after being stuck for about a week near Silver Peak in Esmeralda County, Nevada.
Beverly Barker was alive and taken to a hospital, but Ronnie Barker was deceased, says Mineral County Undersheriff Bill Ferguson.
A nephew says Beverly’s text message pleading for help was delayed and didn’t go through until Tuesday night, after the Barkers had already been found, The Associated Press reported.
The Barkers had taken their recreational vehicle on a cross-country road trip.
The Barkers’ children tell News 8 that the pair was set to return to Indianapolis this week.
On Tuesday night, family members confirmed to News 8 that the couple’s RV has been located but the couple has not been found. The family members did not respond to a later News 8 request about whether the Barkers had been found.
The couple’s family said the last time anyone saw Ronnie and Beverly’s RV was on U.S. 95 in Nevada around 6 p.m. Sunday.
The family had shared a flyer that detailed the couple’s whereabouts.
At noon March 27, Ronnie and Beverly left a campground in Mount Shasta, California. From there, the couple stopped to get gas at 3:48 p.m. March 27 in Stagecoach, Nevada.
Then, at 5:30 p.m. March 27, phone towers pinged the pair in Walker Lake, Nevada. About 5 minutes later, Ronnie and Beverly were picked up by a traffic camera in Hawthorne, Nevada.
Around 5:45 pm March 27, their cellphones were pinged again in Hawthorne, Nevada, this time on U.S. 95.
A surveillance image then showed them in Luning, Nevada, a little after 6 p.m. March 27.
Finally, one last cellphone ping around 7:15 p.m. showed the couple in Silver Peak, Nevada.
What happened next, Ronnie and Beverly’s daughters said, is a mystery. The couple’s daughters said their parents were traveling from Oregon to Arizona to meet up with friends, but they never showed up.
Jennifer Whaley, Ronnie and Beverly’s daughter, said, “We had a cousin that lives in Las Vegas and on Friday he dropped everything and drove up there to those areas. There was nothing. He didn’t see anything. It’s pretty desolate up there. Cell service is kind of spotty, to say the least, and there’s some roads up there that are just sketchy.”
Lynn Bledsoe, Ronnie and Beverly’s daughter, said, “We’ve called every authority. We’ve called every hospital in the area, tow truck companies. I mean we’re doing everything we can.”
The family said authorities and volunteers began searching this past weekend, four days after family says they called police after realizing Ronnie and Beverly did not arrive in Arizona.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.