For hours, family members of Jean and Charles "Phil" Burt worried about the safety of the elderly couple.
Relatives were notified early Monday by McKinney police that the Calera police in Oklahoma had pulled over Charles for driving the wrong way on U.S. 75.
According to Calera police, Charles Burt was given a ticket and let go.
"My grandparents told the officer they were going home from visiting us and were on their way to Crowley, Texas," said Camryn Vecera, who lives in McKinney.
However, the family was not expecting a visit from them. Calera, Okla. is 127 miles from Crowley and 57.3 miles from McKinney.
The family filed a missing person’s report with Crowley police indicating Jean Burt has Alzheimer's. The family was told the couple's disappearance did not qualify for a Silver Alert.
Authorities with the Crowley Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.
The Texas Department of Public Safety created the state’s Silver Alert in 2007 to notify the public of a missing person older than 65 with a documented mental health condition.
For a Silver Alert to be activated an individual must meet these qualifications:
- The senior citizen has a documented diagnosis of a mental condition.
- The individual poses a credible threat to their health or safety.
- The senior citizen's disappearance is due to his/her impaired mental condition.
After an exhausting search and tracking of the couple’s use of their bank transactions, Vecera and her family were able to track the couple to several gas stations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Shortly after 8 p.m. on Jan. 6, the couple was found after a minor accident, according to Cindy Burt Hill’s Facebook post.
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