Photo: Nye County Sheriff's Office/Facebook
A couple from Indiana that was reported missing over a week ago has been located in the Nevada desert. The husband, Ronnie Barker, 72, was found dead and his wife, Beverly Barker, 69, has been hospitalized.
According to FOX 5, the couple's nephew Travis Peters said the Barkers' RV was found west of Silver Lake in Reno, Nevada. It's still unclear what happened to the couple, Peters told FOX 5.
"Right now I’m just processing. We literally went on a rollercoaster. Ronnie no longer being alive in this family is a hole, and it's never going to be filled…he’s just a bigger than life personality," Peters said when he had learned his aunt and uncle have been found.
Beverly was airlifted to Reno. The Mineral County undersheriff said Beverly was "OK" — and that's all Peters knows so far. "Thank god that Beverly is alive, because she will be able to fill in those blanks that we don’t know. Why did they go up the mountain? What happened?” Peters told FOX 5.
According to FOX 5, Ronnie and Beverly were on a trip from Albany, Oregon, to Tuscon, Arizona, to visit friends. They left on March 26, but "went dark" the next evening. AZFamily reported the Barkers never made it to the campground at Nellis AFB where they were scheduled to spend the night before finishing their journey to Tucson.
"After leaving Oregon they were going to stay in the Fallon, NV area however their cell signals/computer tablet signals last ‘pinged’ in an area near Dyer, NV which is nearly 170 miles farther south than where they were planning on staying. Their next planned stop was overnighting at Nellis, AFB outside Las Vegas, then they were continuing to meet their friends in Tucson on Tuesday evening,” Peters said.