Police rescue missing man, 71

By Ed Runyan, Robert Guttersohn | August 16, 2011 at 12:03a.m.

LIBERTY

The sister of a 71-year-old Niles man who went missing Sunday evening said extra effort put forth by police and firefighters to find her brother might have saved his life.

“The police did wonderful. I want to acknowledge that. They were helpful and everything,” Carol Esposito of Shannon Road here said Monday of the rescue that ultimately found her brother injured but alive along Logan Avenue near Tibbetts-Wick Road.

Esposito said her brother, Anthony Rosasco of Third Street in Niles, was headed to her house Sunday for dinner but passed out at the wheel.

She believes he passed out from low blood sugar because he’s a diabetic.

Rosasco called his sister on his cellphone at 5:24 p.m. to tell her his car had gone off the road, and he was 50 feet down in a wooded ravine. He was trapped in the car and said he thought he was in Niles.

Esposito called Niles police, who were unable to locate Rosasco anywhere in the city.

Rosasco would be needing insulin by about 8 p.m., police were told, so they took a step reserved for medical and other emergencies, and contacted Rosasco’s cellphone company, Consumer Cellular, and asked them to try to locate Rosasco’s cellphone using global- positioning technology.

The company indicated the phone was near Interstate 80 in Hubbard, which set off a search by police and firefighters along I-80 in Hubbard Township, Liberty Township and Mercer, Pa.

Hubbard Township Police Chief Todd Coonce said he was off duty when the call came in at 7:02 p.m. He joined on the interstate, but there was no sign of the car.

There was no damage to trees along I-80 or tire tracks in the grass.

A medical helicopter was called to aid in the search. But the weather worsened 90 minutes into the search, and the helicopter ran low on fuel, so it was grounded.

Police from Liberty, Hubbard Township and Mercer drove along I-80 with their sirens blaring, with Esposito on the phone with her brother, hoping he would hear the sirens.

About 9 p.m., authorities realized Rosasco was actually a mile north of I-80, on Logan Avenue. They found him by telling Rosasco to turn on his car headlights.

A friend of a Hubbard firefighter who lives on Logan Avenue caught a glimpse of headlights near his house and relayed the information to police.

“I drove out there, and I could see that he [Rosasco] was way down there,” Coonce said. “He was so far down there that during the day there was no way cars could have seen him.”

Esposito said her brother, who also suffers from early stages of Alzheimer’s disease and who had a stroke five years ago, was taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center on Sunday night and was expected to come home Monday evening.

“He’s going to be OK, but he won’t be able to drive anymore,” Esposito said. “He’s more or less just sore.”

Esposito said she had a chance to personally thank the Logan Avenue man who spotted her brother.