Morrisville man who went missing after crash returns home weeks later, says he was in the woods
A Morrisville man who went missing weeks after a car crash returned home on Saturday, family members told WRAL News on Sunday.
Investigators with the Morrisville Police Department said Dale Wheeler returned home at around 10 p.m. and emailed his brother because he lost his phone.
There were still little answers Sunday as to why Wheeler went missing on Nov. 13. His keys were found inside his car on Church Street beneath Interstate 540 with a great deal of blood, officials said.
Authorities say it's hard to believe anyone could have walked away from such a severe crash. But, when police arrived at Wheeler's home on Sunday, there were no "visible signs of injury." He was alert and conscious sitting in his living room, officials said.
"He looked like he was cold. He was shaking and confused," Sgt. Jason Miller told WRAL News. "He kept repeating he’d been looking for his phone the whole time. He said he’d been in the woods the whole time."
Temperatures dropped below freezing during the past two weeks. Last Saturday, temperatures dipped to 26 degrees. It's unclear how Wheeler could have survived for days in the woods without shelter, food or water.
Emergency responders took Wheeler to a local hospital on Sunday to make sure he was OK.
Miller said investigators have one credible lead from a tip about what happened to Wheeler. He could not say that foul play or suicide was involved, but said investigators aren't ruling anything out.
Officials said they are also working on getting his banking information and would learn more on Monday.
Police put in more than 100 hours searching for Wheeler. The site where Wheeler crashed is fewer than five miles away from his home, off of Kudrow and Morrisville Carpenter roads.
His friends told WRAL News that it would be extremely out of character for Wheeler to purposefully go missing.
"He's just a really nice person, he is the ultimate gentleman, very courteous, very kind," said his friend Denise Spinelli, who played tennis with Wheeler. "I was a beginner when I got into tennis and he really helped me a lot."
Search crews organized by Spinelli scoured the area where Wheeler went missing and found no sign of him. Miller said he's never seen a missing person's case like this one.
