July 29, 2018
Emergency departments from entire area joined local citizens in the search last night
At approximately 11:45 PM on Saturday July 28th Lawrence County E-911 received a report of an 18 year old male, Chase Heitzmann had gone out looking for firewood just prior to dark but had failed to return.
Friends spent the next few hours looking for Chase prior to contacting 911 for assistance.
The Cherryville Fire Department along with Lawrence County EMA and Search and Rescue were notified of the situation. When units arrived on scene they requested additional assistance from Louisa Fire Department and Inez Fire and Rescue.
Crews from Cherryville FD, Lawrence County SAR, Louisa FD and Inez FD spent the next several hours searching the area for the individual.
Crews from Lawrence County SAR were able to find fresh tracks believed to be from the missing subject and began tracking the individual on foot. One crew from Louisa Fire Department searched an additional section on foot while a second LFD crew and a crew from Inez FD utilized ATV’s to search ATV trails in the area.
Additional resources through the assistance of Kentucky Emergency Management were being gathered from other areas of the state. This consisted of dog teams and additional ground search teams that we were requesting to arrive early Sunday morning for a second operational period in case we hadn’t located the subject by that time. We also utilized resources from the United States Air Force Rescue Coordination Center located at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida.
Additionally, we had several citizens in the area volunteer to assist in the search effort. Several took their personal ATV’s and checked additional trails out ahead of the expected path of the individual in an effort to help us provide containment and locate him.
At approximately 3:30 Tony Cole who volunteered from the area to help with this containment came across the individual walking at a trail intersection. The individual was transported to the command post and reunited with his family. The young man stated that he was tired but otherwise felt fine and had no injuries.
We also want to thank the Cherryville Missionary Baptist Church for opening their doors and allowing full access to their facilities to be used for a staging area and command post. Their assistance was extremely beneficial to the search effort and was truly appreciated. We also want to thank the citizens of Cherryville that volunteered to assist our crews in anyway possible during this incident.
Thanks to the efforts of everyone he was located and brought back home in good health.
Time
11:45 PM
Date
7/28/2018
Location
8000 block of KY 1690
