EATONVILLE, WA — After unexpectedly dying of heart disease while geocaching outside Eatonville, a 64-year-old man remained missing in the woods for nearly 24 hours before his dog and loyal companion Daisy alerted search and rescuers to her owner’s location.

The Pierce County Sheriff’s Departments’ Search and Rescue teams spent all day Thursday looking for the unidentified Eatonville resident after his wife reported him missing that morning.

According to sheriff’s officials, the man took his dog Daisy for a geocaching expedition in the woods on April 24 but never returned home. The man’s wife called police the next morning.

Using the man’s recent internet search history, his wife believed he may be geocaching in the Evans Creek area, sheriff’s officials said.

“At daybreak, deputies from our Foothills Detachment searched the Evans Creek area by vehicle and on foot but found no sign of the missing man or his vehicle,” officials explained in a Facebook post. “At the same time, detectives were able to ping the missing man’s phone, which indicated that it was last used in the Alder Lake area.”

The county’s Air Operations Unit took to the sky and searched along both main roads and logging roads around the lake, officials said. Around 3 p.m. April 25, the air unit spotted a vehicle that had gone over the embankment in the 49800-block of Mountain Highway.

Rescuers worked together to climb down the steep embankment only to find the vehicle did not belong to the missing man. Rescuers instead reportedly found a stolen vehicle that had been dumped in the area, so the search resumed.

Nearly two hours later searchers found the missing man’s car parked along Mashal Prairie Road in Nisqually State Park, west of Eatonville. In his vehicle, the man reportedly left behind a list of geocache locations.

Using the man’s list, search and rescue teams began heading to each location on foot, officials said.

Just before 6 p.m., searchers reportedly heard a dog barking somewhere in the woods. Heading toward the sound, searchers eventually came upon Daisy sitting on a steep embankment above the Mashel River.

It took rescuers another 30 minutes of pushing through the thick brush before they were able to contact Daisy, who was reportedly sitting stalwart next to her fallen master.

Daisy was returned to her home after police removed the man’s body from the area.

“This was a very sad end to a tough search, but we are incredibly proud of our deputies and the volunteers efforts to find the missing man and return him to his family,” officials said. “Without the barking of his loyal companion Daisy, we never would have located the missing man.”

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