HERNANDO COUNTY, Fla. — The body of a Canadian man who went missing Wednesday was found by the sheriff's office Friday morning, according to Hernando County Sheriff Al Nienhuis.
The body of 74-year-old Richard Joseph Adolphe Paquet was found in a body of water in a neighborhood. It wasn't until cadaver dogs were brought in that the location of Paquet's body was discovered.
Nienhuis says he believes there was some sort of medical episode that resulted in him making his way to the seawall before falling in.
"We certainly send our condolences to his family...we're certainly sorry for their loss," the sheriff said in a video posted to Facebook.
According to deputies, Paquet and his wife recently arrived in Florida after traveling all the way from Nova Scotia, Canada.
On Tuesday, Paquet got into a minor car crash in Brooksville, but the couple was not injured, the sheriff's office explains. Their van was still drivable.
Sometime before midnight, deputies say Paquet backed the van into a driveway in Hernando Beach, not knowing the people living at the house.
It wasn't until the morning that the owners of the house saw the van and contacted law enforcement.
Sheriff's deputies met with Paquet's wife, who reportedly seemed disoriented, and were told the couple stopped to sleep. While she was falling asleep, her husband was in the van.
But when she woke up, Paquet was gone, according to the sheriff's office.
It's unknown at this time when the 74-year-old man got out of the van and walked away. Deputies estimate it was sometime between midnight and 7:30 a.m. Wednesday.
"Family members state that Richard did not have any medical and/or mental health issues prior to traveling to Florida," the sheriff's office wrote in a news release. "It is unknown if he recently suffered from an unknown medical issue, causing him to act erratically."
A team of officers from the Hernando County Sheriff's Office, Pasco Sheriff's Office, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and the U.S. Coast Guard searched for Paquet but couldn't find him.
Drones, K-9 teams, different types of watercraft, a dive team and the aviation unit were all used in the search, which lasted more than 11 hours, according to deputies.
After searching for days, the body of Paquet was found in a body of water by cadaver dogs Friday morning.
According to Nienhuis, there doesn't seem to be any foul play connected to the man's death at this time.