PIERCE TWP., Ohio — The search for a 72-year-old man with autism, missing since early December, pivoted at some point to a Rumpke landfill, according to Pierce Township police.
Lt. Julie Poe, with Pierce Township police, said the search for Thomas Mills has been exhaustive and parties have scoured several different locations around the Amelia Court Apartments, where Mills was last seen.
Search crews have also spent 1800 hours of the 4,000-hour search combing through a Rumpke landfill for Mills, Poe said. One week before Mills disappeared, Poe said he got stuck inside of a dumpster and had to be helped out by passing Good Samaritans.
Mills has been missing since Dec. 6 and was last seen around 8 a.m. that day in the Amelia Court Apartments' parking lot on West Ohio Pike, according to the Clermont County Communication Center. Crews have been searching for him since.
At the start of the search, concern for Mills suffering hypothermia was a major focus of the search.
"He was out when it was raining so he's going to be wet," said Jeff Shari, chief of Cincinnati Search and Recovery. "Worried that he might have hypothermia by now."
That was before the Tri-State underwent a rapid freeze and endured a blizzard.
Crews plan to gather Saturday morning to continue the search for Mills, starting at 9:30 a.m. The search crews will gather at Access Church on West Ohio Pike in Amelia, though crews have not yet said where they plan to search on Saturday.
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