(The Associated Press circulated the following on June 29.)
WILLIAMS, Ariz. — A 65-year-old St. Louis man who disappeared Sunday night in northern Arizona after being escorted off an Amtrak train bound for Los Angeles has been found in the area where he got off the train.
The Williams Police Department says a sheriff’s deputy who had been involved in a search for Roosevelt Sims spotted him about 9:40 pm last night walking along the railroad track some three miles southeast of Williams.
A dispatcher said today that Sims was taken to Flagstaff Regional Medical Center for evaluation.
Sims reportedly was forced off the train because train personnel believed he was drunk, although family members say he was likely in a diabetic shock.
Amtrak issued a statement saying it followed company policy in escorting Sims off the Sunset Chief Sunday night at Williams Junction during a regularly scheduled stop. It said police were called, and that a conductor waited on the platform with Sims and his luggage for officers to arrive, and when they did, it says Sims ran into the nearby woods.
Sims’ wife said that the day before her husband left St. Louis, a doctor diagnosed him diabetic. She said he sounded disoriented when she talked to him by cell phone on Monday, the day after he was put off the train.