All-Out Search for Man Turns Up Nothing in Rock County

JANESVILLE, WI - The Stateline's cold snap made for a potentially dangerous situation in rural Janesville late Monday night.  The Rock County Sheriff's department pulled out all the stops on a search to help find a man a passerby says was stumbling in the cold.

At approximately 8:30 PM on Monday, Rock County Sheriff's deputies were called out to the intersection of N. Little Road & County Highway A.  A passerby had phoned in a request for officers to complete a welfare check on a male individual.

"The reporting person called and stated that a male was walking the ditch line and appeared to be stumbling and falling down," said Dep. Kevin Skatrud.  Skatrud was one of the first responders on scene.

The man, the Good Samaritan saw, proceeded to stumble down through the ditch and into the field that it bordered.  The driver turned around to keep an eye on the man, but when the person flipped their headlights on the man he darted.  Dep. Skatrud says it wasn't easy trying to locate the man.

"Deputies driving the road and checking the fields couldn't find him," said Skatrud.

"We decided to get the K-9 unit involved too.  Hopefully they could track a scent and we could locate him that way because it was very cold last night and it could possibly be deadly."

Rock County utilized the Department of Natural Resources thermal imaging plane to help look for the man as well.  Commander Troy Knudsen was the one that made the call to pull out all the stops.

"I don't think that there's any policy that would specifically say, in this particular situation this is exactly what you need to do, but rather you make your best judgment based on what resources you have available to you in order to protect the public as best as you can," said Cmdr. Knudsen.

Conditions Monday night were unbearable, with temperatures flirting with zero and wind gusts to boot.  Knudsen says those circumstances were what called for the search.

"If it would have been 30 degrees out instead of sub-zero like it was, if the subject would have been just simply walking and hadn't been staggering, hadn't been crawling at one point, I think our concern would have been much less," said Kndusen.

Rock County Sheriff's Department called off the search sometime around 4:30 AM on Tuesday morning, but they did release this description of the man:

-   White Male

-   Late 40s - Early 50s

-   Approx. 6' 0" - 220 - 230 Lbs.

-   Dark graying facial hair

-   Last seen wearing a tan colored coat with dark pants.

If you have any information on the condition of this person you can call the Rock County 911 non-emergency line at (608) 757-2244.