Husband found dead during search for missing Maine couple

A couple who were reported missing on Thursday have been found.

Pamela Helmstadter, 72, and the body of John Helmstadter, 82, were found by Maine game wardens around 2:30 p.m., according to Mark Latti, spokesman for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

Pamela Helmstadter was found with one of the Helmstadters’ dogs more than a mile from the couple’s Alexander home. John Helmstadter’s body was found about 200 yards from where guards found Pamela.

According to Pamela Helmstadter, the couple had been walking their dogs in the woods behind their house on Sunday. When John Helmstadter fell, the couple lost their way and were unable to get up.

Neither Pamela nor John Helmstadter had cell phones with them during the walk. Pamela Helmstadter told guards that she tried to go back to the house to get help but became disoriented and couldn’t make it home.

According to a neighbor who alerted Maine wardens to Helmstadter’s absence, one of the couple’s two dogs had returned to the house, but Pamela and John Helmstadter had not been seen Wednesday.

Maine game wardens began searching for the pair Wednesday evening.

According to Latti, when planes flew over Pamela Helmstadter’s whereabouts, she regained hope that she would be found.

Pamela Helmstadter, who was hypothermic at the time she was located, was transported to Calais Community Hospital. Details about her condition were not immediately known.

It was not immediately clear whether John Helmstadter’s body will be autopsied. An email to Maine DIFW spokesman Mark Latti was not immediately returned.

Further information was not yet available on Thursday evening.