By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News

On Monday, June 30, the Helper City Police Department requested the public’s assistance in locating a missing 72-year-old man.

Pete Eaquinta, age 72, reportedly wandered away from his home on the night of Sunday, June 29. 

Issuing a call to action on social media, the department requested the public’s assistance in locating Eaquinta. “The Helper City Police Department is requesting the public’s assistance in locating Pete Eaquinta,” reads the post. “Pete has been diagnosed with dementia and has possibly wandered off from his home in Helper.”

Hours after the initial post was made, the department made an extremely positive update on the case. “Pete was safely located at approximately 12:30 p.m. today and care of Pete has been released to a close friend until further arrangements can be made.”

In this update, Helper City Police also thanked the public for their assistance in helping spread the word on the situation,” Thank you to everyone for the support and sharing of this post as it is always paramount to find individuals as quickly as possible. Without the sharing of this post, the information would not have gotten to the right people to locate Pete.”

At the time of writing, the initial call to action had been shared over 400 times by residents across the Castle Country.