The SUV belonging to a missing 77-year-old Auburn man with dementia was found near Moosehead Lake on Saturday, about 150 miles from his home.

William Young’s wife was relieved to hear the news, but distressed to think he could have been wandering the rural area without food or shelter for days.

“When I first got the phone call I was ecstatic,” Claire Young said. “Then I started to think, ‘Poor Bill. He could have been there since Tuesday.'”

William Young – known to friends and family as Bill – was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease five years ago. He has a poor sense of direction, is anxious around crowds and in traffic and is sometimes confused.

On Monday, while his wife was at work, he took the family’s mint-green Toyota RAV4 and drove away from his Auburn home. Although a national alert had been issued and Maine police and volunteers had been searching for him for days, there had been no sign of the military veteran and retired educator.

Until Saturday, when a Maine Warden Service pilot spotted Young’s vehicle at about 1 p.m. at Spencer Bay.

About 20 game wardens are searching for Young, including wardens in airplanes and on ATVs and search and rescue dogs, according to a press release from the Maine Warden Service. Because the area’s snow has melted, tracks were virtually nonexistent.

Wardens are looking for anyone who may have seen Young between Auburn and the Greenville-Kokadjo area where his SUV was found.

Young has gray hair and hazel eyes, is 5 feet, 9 inches tall and weighs about 190 pounds. Before he disappeared Monday he was wearing dark-gray pants, a dark-green shirt, light-green L.L. Bean jacket, black sneakers and a tan ball cap.

Anyone with information can call the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Office at 1-800-437-7372.