State Trooper Credited in Finding and Saving Life of Missing Detroit Lakes Woman

DETROIT LAKES (KDLM) – A Minnesota State Trooper is being credited for finding and saving the life of a missing Detroit Lakes woman, Wednesday.

An elderly female with Dementia was reported missing after leaving the 1400 block of Madison Ave. in Detroit Lakes just after 1:30 p.m., Wednesday.

Minnesota State Patrol Trooper Mike Lundeen heard the radio traffic about the missing woman and came in to Detroit Lakes to help. He assisted Detroit Lakes Police Officers with double checking the building the missing woman had left from and the surrounding parking areas. When that was finished, Mike got a feeling he should look for footprints south of the starting point, said Detroit Lakes Police Chief Steven Todd.

“Something caught his eye near Madison Ave and North Shore Drive, he checked it out closer, it was a set of footprints that just didn’t seem right. Mike got out of his squad and followed them between some houses, he wasn’t sure if they belonged there or not. He eventually found they went out onto the lake ice and headed west, he found an area where it appeared the person leaving the footprints had fallen down, the tracks continued west as far as he could see. He went back to his car and drove several houses west, got out and went to the lake and picked up the tracks again. The sun was going down fast, temps were in the single digits and dropping. Mike kept following the tracks and said he heard something, he looked towards where the noise was and he found our missing woman.”

The woman was laying on the rip rap shoreline, EMS personal were able to transport the woman to the Emergency Room.

“Without him being in that place at that time, following that “feeling”, and sticking with it through the cold and the snow, our missing woman would not have been found. So, Thank You Trooper Mike Lundeen, you made the difference,” said Todd.

Assisting in the search and rescue were Detroit Lakes Fire, Essentia EMS, Becker County Sheriff’s Deputies and Dispatch, as well as all Detroit Lakes Police Department Patrol Officers and Investigators.