Missing Yellowknife man found alive

A 37-year-old Yellowknife man has been found alive, after being missing for three weeks.

George Collins was found shortly before 8 p.m. MT Wednesday by his uncle, Ed Michelin, off a trail near the Lakeview Cemetery.

"I thought I'm never going to find him so … I guess I said a little prayer there, on top of the hill, that I would find him. And within a half-hour, I did," Michelin told CBC News on Thursday.

"It was amazing. I think I must have had higher help because it's like looking for a needle in a haystack, really."

Collins, a former computer technician, has been living with Michelin but is known to wander outdoors for short periods of time.

Michelin reported his nephew missing after Collins left home on Sept. 8 and did not come back.

Michelin said he found Collins lying on the ground, curled up in a thin rain jacket. Collins probably had not eaten much since he went missing, his uncle said.

'You have to go home'

"When I first called out to him he didn’t answer right away, so I was a little nervous. Then he answered, so that was good," Michelin recalled.

"I told him, 'You can’t stay out here, you have to go home,' and he said OK."

Collins is recovering at Stanton Territorial Hospital. Michelin said he hopes his nephew, who has been struggling with schizophrenia, can receive psychiatric care.

"You can't keep walking off from society and having a good result every time," Michelin said.

"In George's case, he just wants peace and quiet and that's why he went out there. I don't know where he can get peace and quiet other than in a place where it's a controlled environment. You won't get it out here, for sure."

Over the past three weeks, Yellowknife RCMP and search and rescue volunteers had scoured the areas around the Frame Lake Trail and the cemetery, based on reported sightings.

Michelin said Collins told him he knew people were looking for him, but he avoided the searchers.

In addition to the police searches, Michelin himself searched for Collins around Frame Lake and Yellowknife's downtown.

Michelin said he carved messages for Collins on park benches, in the hopes that his nephew would see them.