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| By Doug Carey |
| The Command Post (CP) around 7 p.m. on December 28. |
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| By Doug Carey |
| The Monmouth County Sheriff's Department's Mobile Command Unit (Field Comm 2) arrives at the CP. |
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| By Doug Carey |
| Ocean Gate EMS personnel arrive. |
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| By Doug Carey |
| Staging for arriving units at the CP. |
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| By Doug Carey |
| The Command Post on Day 2 (December 29) of the search. |
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| By Doug Carey |
| Field Comm 2 set up in front of the CP. |
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MATAWAN - Around 10 a.m. on December 28, 78-year-old "Willy" McCord left his home on Orchard Street to take a walk. Around 3:45 that afternoon "Willy's" family contacted the Matawan Police Department (MPD), for "Willy" is believed to suffer from alzheimer's disease and had not been seen since he left for his walk.
What ensued was a large-scale ground search, involving over 100 personnel and lasting slightly over 24 hours; before Detective Nunziato and Patrolman Brian Caughey of the Rutherford Police Department spotted "Willy" attempting to enter a parking garage across from the Rutherford Train Station at approximately 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, December 29.
Just 24-hours earlier, members of Matawan's Office of Emergency Management (OEM), MPD, Matawan Borough Fire Department (MBFD), Matawan First Aid Squad, Matawan's Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), Hazlet Fire Department and CERT, Aberdeen Township Fire Department and CERT, Keansburg Fire Department, Holmdel Rescue and CERT, Ocean Gate EMS, Keyport Fire Department and CERT, Monmouth County Sheriff's Department, and the recently formed Jersey Shore Search and Rescue Task Force were all working in a coordinated effort to locate Mr. McCord.
Setting up a Unified Command at the Matawan Borough Community Center at Church and Broad, MPD Captain McGowan, MBFD's Deputy Chief LiPera and Deputy Chief Berliner and Holmdel Rescue Captain Hernando worked on setting up search teams and zones, and coordinating communications. With the assistance of Senior Operator Ed Horn and Kevin O'Brien of the Monmouth County Sheriff's Department's Emergency Communications Center (along with Mobile Command Unit - Field Comm 2), Command was able to put all cooperating agencies on a shared frequency. Teams were assigned areas and the ground search was on. A request was made for area fire departments to loan their Thermal Imaging Cameras for the night search effort .
Through brainstorming and contacts with the family, Command sent teams to cover areas Mr. McCord may have frequented in his younger days. Earlier, teams were sent to investigate sightings of a man matching "Willy's" description at two separate locations within the borough.
By midnight on the 28th, all of Matawan Borough had been searched and teams were moving into the adjoining townships of Aberdeen and Marlboro. However, in the interest of safety and to allow searchers to recuperate, it was decided to suspend operations until daybreak.
By 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, crews were back in the "field", determined to locate Mr. McCord. With this renewed effort were members of the Middletown Township Fire Department. Picking up where search crews left off in Aberdeen and Marlboro, fresh teams scoured the two townships. Meanwhile, flyers were being passed out amongst the citizenry of Matawan and adjoining communities.
The New Jersey State Police and the Monmouth County Sheriff's Department supplied search dog teams on this second day of searching, and the Salvation Army set up at the Command Post to help during rehab by supplying nourishment.
Little did these hard-working volunteers know that in less than eight hours a long-distance phone call would end it all, and in a good way. At approximately 4:45 p.m. Command received a phone call informing rescuers that Rutherford Police were holding Mr. McCord until his family could arrive to return him home. To that end, MPD Lieutenant Alston took members of Mr. McCord's immediate family on a trip to Rutherford, approximately 35-miles away.
Matawan Mayor Bea Duffy (also the borough's OEM Co-ordinator) was on-hand at the outset and she was exuberant in her praise of everyone involved in the search. "The response from everyone who we contacted, and even those we did not, has been tremendous. Everyone is doing such a fantastic job," stated the Mayor. Through Mr. McCord's family the Mayor did know of him, and to her this was somewhat personal.
MPD Detective Sergeant Smith, who commanded the second day of the search, was glad that it all ended on a happy note.
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