Missing Wyoming man with dementia spotted by wife on Salt Lake City TV dies after return home

SALT LAKE CITY — A missing Wyoming man with dementia whose wife spotted him on the nightly TV news hundreds of miles away in Salt Lake City has died soon after returning home.

Michael Black, 91, fell ill with influenza days after he returned with his wife, Avril Black, 77, to Afton, Wyoming.

“And I thought, ‘Hey, this isn’t good,’” Avril Black told KSL-TV. “The nurses said he could go home, but he wasn’t going to get better. He had problems with his heart and his kidneys.”

He collapsed and died Thursday, a week after returning from Utah, according to Black.

Michael Black had wandered away from home Nov. 25 and hitchhiked more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) to Salt Lake City. Tipsters helped police track his movements.

By Nov. 27, he had gotten a ride to a Salt Lake City rescue mission. There, KSL-TV recorded a segment on feeding the homeless at Thanksgiving time — a piece seen by Avril Black that night.

She spotted her husband among dozens of others at the shelter. On Thanksgiving, she set out for Salt Lake City to fetch him.

Soon after they got home, Michael Black fell ill with a cough. He died under home hospice care, according to his wife.

“It was his time, and he had an adventure, and he enjoyed his little adventure. That’s life, I guess. Maybe he’s in a better place,” Avril Black said.

The couple were married for 47 years.