What started as a community search quickly turned into a heartwarming rescue — all thanks to a local volunteer and his trusty dog, Dolly.
Ben Osenbaugh, 39, had only been out looking for about an hour when he and Dolly stumbled upon 82-year-old Ralph Yang, who had gone missing two days earlier in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Yang, who has dementia and Parkinson’s disease, had disappeared on Monday, June 23, sparking a widespread search that would stretch into Wednesday evening.
According to police, Yang was eventually found lying in a creek near the 2500 block of Newport Road, just before 9 p.m. on June 25. He was still alive — and remarkably, able to talk.
Osenbaugh, a former chemical engineering professor at the University of Michigan, told MichiganLive that when he joined the search that night, he hadn’t even planned to check the creek at first. His original plan was to investigate a vacant home nearby. But something nudged him in another direction.
As he and Dolly made their way closer to the water, he spotted someone.
“He was laying facing away from me, so I was approaching him from the back of his head,” Osenbaugh recalled. At first glance, he said, Yang didn’t look like an elderly man. “He just looked like someone really young, like much younger.”
Realizing what he’d found, Osenbaugh immediately called 911. Police arrived quickly, and according to bodycam footage later shared by WXYZ-TV, officers helped lift Yang out of the water and carried him up to the road. He was placed on a stretcher and taken to the University of Michigan Hospital. Thankfully, police said he was “fairly responsive” and could communicate with the people who found him.
Osenbaugh said he was moved by how many people had turned out to help search — more than 200 by Wednesday night, with about 60 others joining earlier in the day, according to WDIV-TV. It was a community-wide effort fueled by concern and compassion.
“All it takes is one person to get that news and show up,” Osenbaugh said. “You never know what could happen.”
Police later thanked everyone involved, from neighbors to volunteers to the emergency responders who helped in the final moments.
“Today was a true testament to how strong our community is and how we look after each other,” the department said in a statement.
And for Osenbaugh and Dolly, it was just one meaningful hour — but one that made all the difference.
