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A retired San Francisco firefighter missing nearly a week may have fallen off an Amtrak train he was riding from California to Chicago.
The family of Charlie Dowd, 69, said Wednesday that Amtrak police told them that a passenger saw Dowd about 10 p.m. on Sept. 13 near a train door. Another passenger found an exterior train door ajar about 11 p.m. that night but didn’t report it to Amtrak officials until the next morning.
“Amtrak officials are now saying that Dowd may have opened the exterior door and fallen out,” the family said in a statement posted on a Facebook page dedicated to finding Dowd.
The train was somewhere between Fort Morgan, Colo., and McCook, Neb., the family said, and searchers have been focused on the 160 miles of rail line between the two towns.
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Yuma County, Colo., Sheriff Chad Day told NBC News that his agency on Tuesday finished searching by foot, ATV and even air the 40 miles of east-west track passing through his jurisdiction and had to tell the family and Amtrak police crews did not find Dowd.
“If I were in that position,” he said of Dowd’s family, “no one could do anything that would be enough. “Certainly from my perspective we did what we could do and that everything was searched that could be searched.”
Courtesy of the Dowd family
Charles Dowd, 69, a retired San Francisco firefighter and business owner en route to visit his son and family in Montreal, Quebec, Canada is missing.
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Neighboring agencies are doing the same, he said.
“I’m anxious right along with them,” Day said of Dowd’s family.
Dowd boarded the California Zephyr on Sept. 12 in Emeryville, Calif., with plans to change trains in Chicago on Sept. 14 and continue to Montreal to visit his son. But when the train pulled into the Chicago station, Dowd was not aboard, yet his luggage, cell phone and medication were.
Amtrak on Wednesday told NBC News it was continuing to coordinate searches with local agencies as it has done since Dowd was reported missing.
Family members say they are concerned because Dowd, a diabetic, could potentially be disoriented and needing his medication.
“He’s a really independent spirit and was doing this trip for the adventure,” his daughter, Jennifer Dowd, told NBCBayArea.com. “This is a shocking turn of events.”
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The family last heard from Dowd by cell phone on Sept.13, she said.
The train conductor said a person who fits Dowd's description appeared disoriented and confused about his whereabouts, thinking he was in an apartment rather than on a train and that he needed to find the front door. Police have yet to confirm the man the conductor saw was actually Dowd.
This article includes reporting by Lori Preuitt of NBCBayArea.com and Jim Gold of NBCNews.com.
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Amtrak needs some employee training. A lot of seniors use the train, and to have an employee not assist a disorientated passenger is just terrible.
"The train conductor said a person who fits Dowd's description appeared disoriented and confused about his whereabouts, thinking he was in an apartment rather than on a train and that he needed to find the front door. Police have yet to confirm the man the conductor saw was actually Dowd." Shouldn't this be at the front of the article and not the last paragraph?
If this were a real newssource it would be, but its a Progressive political blog so the writing is 4th grade level.
And yet here you are reading and commenting on it, Jeff.
I don't know why an alarm didn't sound when the door was ajar. I ride Amtrak all the time between Chicago and DC. They need a better system for passengers to call car conductors when something is wrong.
Me & my wife work with the handicap & last year GA enacted a new rule that all exterior doors must sound an alarm if they are opened coming or going. They are not loud like a fire alarm they sound like a doorbell, but you know if someone tries to leave when they are not suppose to. They are not expensive around $30 at Lowes.
What most people don't realize is, every safety regualtion protecting us today from cars to cribs, to building fire codes is from loss of life in tragedies. I sure hope Dowd is found safely.But things are not looking so good. If nothing else, perhaps Amtrak can help train its employees better and install a system that doesn't allow its external doors to be opened while it is in motion. To protect passengers in the future from any mistakes or harm.So some good may come from this situation no matter how things turn out. Meanwhile, my prayers are going out to everyone involved that Mr Dowd will be found safe.
Maybe this Passenger just got done reading a “Sarah Palin” book….became Confused, Irrational and Lost his Mind. It seems to be a “Side Effect”.
You BetCha….Fer Sure.
Since you have your stupidity covered by a nickname, I will assume that your comment was posted by someone who is too caught up in politics to remember YOUR name or how to write decent post commenting on the story.
So sad for his family...I hope this gentlman is o.k. !
I wonder why his family let him go on such a trip alone, or possibly they did not know about it?
I don't really blame Amtrak unless there was some "pre agreement" to keep an eye on this gentleman.
I hope for the best, but fear the worst in this case.
Hold on a second. No one has to "let" a 69-year-old man go on a trip. Nothing in the article suggests he was mentally incompetent or senile--only that he had diabetes that was apparently under control. It's possible that something went wrong with his diabetes medication or schedule, and that would make him disoriented. But the same thing could happen to anyone of any age with diabetes under treatment.
Amtrack Conductors that found him disoriented and found the door adjar should be taken back to the general area where this gentleman went missing and thrown out of the moving train on the same side they suspect he fell out. I bet they'll find him in a NY second.
While I hope they find this man unharmed, I can't help but think that they need to put Barton Keyes on the job - he'd figure out what happened.
I am so sorry for this family and the poor man who is missing. I don't understand how an employee seeing a disoriented man who was looking for the front door, didn't take action to make sure the man was medically all right and not looking for the front door on a moving train! Why the heck the train doors don't have very loud alarms unless they are meant to be open is beyond me. I will keep them in my prayers.
[I hope not] but I have a feeling that this man might have fell off the train,and your right Shady Pines,this would be the employee's fault for not watching the man and see that he got the help he needed.I hope everything turns out okay,but it doesn't look good.I see a amtrak lawsuit.
I hope they find him and he is OK but falling off a moving train cannot be good
Geez, the poor guy mistook the train door for an apartment door, tried to walk out, and fell. Pretty clear that's what happened. I hope the reason they can't find him is that he was not too injured and was at least well enough to walk someplace. Though if he's a diabetic, being without his medication for this long can easily have deadly consequences. Really hope they find him soon. And my God, if the conductor saw that this guy was disoriented enough to think he was in an apartment, the conductor should have either reoriented him as to where he was (on a TRAIN) or made sure he got back to his sleeping berth.
They will find him laying down the track , that's my gess.
Hope they find him ok, though it doesn't sound good. Better find him quickly though, unless he is a survivalist he is running out of time out in the bush.
Reminds me of that Twilight episode: Next Stop, Willoughby
I'm an ex-firefighter of 23 years...I would NEVER fall off a train! That is the lamest excuse I can think of for amtrack to use for a missing passenger. He was either killed by a Beotch wife, or he committed suicide because of a Beotch wife...AND believe it or not but I have taken that exact train route several times and there are NO stretches of track that would make a passenger to "FALL" off the train...Again I have taken that route at least four times to stay off of planes
My guess would be suicide
......what DOOR, the side mid-section, cab-to-cab door? Don't they have the "flex" accordion rubber insulation, between the cars/cabs? Oh, and BTW, how was his demeanor on the cell phone? Did he seem coherent or disillusioned? These things were never brought up
You are right and many of us, after we pass 70 or so, fear that we will "lose our freedom" for many reasons, medical conditions being one of the leading reasons. Trains don't seem to have the same attitude about passenger safety that airlines do, for instance.
Having a medical bracelet or necklace are good ways to be sure that someone will help you. Good training of everyone on the train crew that deals with passengers should be trained in emergency medical treatment such as dealing with severe bleeding, stoppage of breathing and heart stoppage emergencies that required apparatus, i.e. a defibrillator.
Common sense things like telling your family and friends where you are going, your itinerary, when you will return, etc.
Like most of you, I hope that this story has a happy ending but that possibility seems bleak at the moment.
ambien.
......only 25 comments here, pretty sad, when you see other MSNBC sites with over 200 comments