Security video footage reviewed this week shows Jack Howe ? a Winfield man who has been missing since the weekend ? shopping at a local grocery store and driving away alone a short time later on the day he was last seen.
"We’ve confirmed he was at the Dillon’s store in Winfield purchasing some items that were later found in the pick up that was recovered," Capt. Bill Mueller of the Cowley County Sheriff’s Department said. "He was alone at the time (he was shopping.)"
Howe was last seen at his home south of Winfield around noon last Friday. A neighbor grew concerned by Sunday and notified the sheriff’s office.
Investigators received a tip that the man had been seen in the Winfield Dillon’s store and security footage confirmed that information. He is seen making his way around the store Friday night around 9 p.m.
Additional footage captured by cameras at the Wal-Mart Supercenter show Howe’s truck exiting the parking lot and going south on U.S. 77. That truck was found Sunday south of Caldwell in Grant County, Okla.
Information from the Dillon’s video also has enabled investigators to update information about the clothing Howe was wearing. He had on red suspenders, a blue flannel shirt with long sleeves, a blue baseball cap and blue jeans.
A neighbor told officers it would be unusual for Howe to be shopping at a grocery store because the neighbor usually did Howe’s shopping, Mueller said. But there was an item he had requested and not gotten that might have led him to the store.
Mueller said the footage from inside the store does indicate Howe was more mobile than previously believed.
Despite the new information, the man’s whereabout remain a mystery.
"He is missing, absolutely," Mueller said. "And we’re terribly concerned by that."
MISSING PARENT
Howe liked to fish and hunt but the 87-year-old man hasn’t been able to do that for several years. He worked for General Electric until he retired and raised a small orchard as long as he could.
"He hasn’t been able to get out and do a whole lot," Howe’s son, David, said. "He still liked to work in the yard as much as he could."
David Howe doesn’t know where his dad and is concerned for his well-being.
"Mom is in a nursing home in Wisconsin where my sister lives," David Howe said. "Dad lived alone about a year and a half."
David Howe lives in St. Charles, Mo – a 7 or 8 hour drive from Winfield. He visited his dad as often as he could and said it was difficult to visit on the telephone because his dad had poor hearing.
"Even when I was here, I’d write stuff down," he said. "Letters were the only way we could really communicate.
A massive air and ground search was conducted in the area where the pickup was found Sunday and again on Monday but Jack Howe was nowhere to be found.
The 1999 dark blue Ford Ranger Pickup was found east of U.S. 81 on the railroad right-of-way.
