Ronnie Barker Indiana man found dead, wife Beverly airlifted to hospital after elderly couple got stuck in mud during RV road trip through Nevada desert.
An Indiana man who vanished during a Nevada desert road trip has been found dead while the man’s wife was airlifted to hospital after the elderly couple’s RV vehicle got stuck in mud according to family.
Ronnie Barker, 72, and his 69-year-old wife, Beverly, were found by rescuers late Tuesday after they vanished on March 27 while driving through western Nevada WTHR reported.
The elderly couple who set out on March 26 from their Indianapolis home were suppose to meet with friends at Tucson, Arizona, only to fail to turn up or reach out.
Ronnie and Beverly Barker were reported missing by their children after they failed to meet their friends.
The couple’s abandoned RV was located in muddy, mountainous terrain near Silver Peak, their nephew, Travis Peters, said in a Facebook post.
Elderly couple had sought to get help after RV got stuck in mud
The Kia car they had been towing behind the RV had been removed by the time rescuers reached the area.
Mineral County Search and Rescue teams followed the tire tracks from the Kia and located the couple about two miles away at 4 p.m. Tuesday Indy Star reported.
Family members believe the couple would have set off looking for help in the secondary vehicle after the RV became bogged down.
Hours after the couple were located, their children received a text from one of their phones asking for help, Peters said.
‘A single text message was received to Ronnie and Bev’s daughters,’ he said. ‘That text message was trying to send out and I can only assume that as Bev was airlifted to the hospital, or perhaps their belongings were brought down the mountain, that message finally came through. But now we know it arrived too late.’
Beverly was airlifted to a Reno hospital, where she is still undergoing treatment. Her exact condition wasn’t immediately known.
It is not yet clear when her husband died. Ronnie Barker’s cause of death had yet to be officially determined as of Wednesday afternoon.
Authorities had previously revealed during their search that the Barkers both suffered from diabetes and Ronnie had also previously battled cancer.
The couple, who were due to return to Indianapolis this week, had set off on a cross-country road trip last month, when they disappeared.
