Authorities found his vehicle still running and the flashers on along with his wallet and boots. But there were no signs of Lee Arms.
The 44-year-old father of three had not been seen since Super Bowl Sunday, his car abandoned near Loop 1604 and Interstate 10 in the San Antonio area. He was gone for weeks until Thursday when he was found living more than 1,400 miles away in Ohio.
“He wanted to escape his life out there and his situation,” Bath Township Police Chief Michael McNeely told the Akron Beacon Journal on Monday.
The newspaper reports a Bath Township detective working off a tip found Arms but didn’t release more details.
McNeely said the reason for the move was because the man “met somebody online.”
The day Arms went missing was routine. He called his father, Walter, on his drive to work from Falls City to San Antonio. He told his parents he reached Interstate 10, and he’d talk to them the next day.
“And he told me, ‘Dad, I love you,’ and I told him the same thing,” Walter Arms told WOAI-TV in San Antonio.
Surveillance footage showed him stopping to get gas in the San Antonio area.
The Arms family joined forces with the Heidi Search Center to search the area around where he disappeared.
“I’ve worked human trafficking and missing persons for 14 years, and this is a very rare incident. This is the first time I’ve actually had it happen,” Dottie Laster, executive director of the Heidi Search Center, told WOAI.
The station reports the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office is looking into Arms’ actions.
His family thanked authorities for their help in locating him but also asked for time to heal.
“We ask that you keep our families in your prayers and please respect our request for privacy as the family begins to heal from this difficult experience. Thank You again,” the family wrote on the Finding Lee Arms Facebook page.
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