A Michigan family of four who hadn't been seen or heard from for days after the father called 911 and exhibited paranoid behavior has been found safe in Wisconsin, police said Sunday.
NBC affiliate WOOD of Grand Rapids reported that police found the Cirigliano family in Steven’s Point, Wisconsin, at around 11 a.m. Sunday.
Authorities interviewed all family members and determined they were safe, WOOD reported.
“They are still of the opinion that people are after them, but the elements of the investigation do not meet the criteria for protective custody,” the police department said. “The family member that was requiring full-time care is being cared for by other family members."
Additional details were not immediately available, and Freemont police could not immediately be reached for comment.
Fremont police and Michigan State Police previously said that family members had not heard from Anthony and Suzette Cirigliano, both 51, or their sons Brandon, 19, and Noah, 15, since Oct. 16, and that their phone has been turned off. Their disappearances prompted both police departments to issue missing persons alerts.
They had last been spotted at a gas station Friday in Gulliver, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, buying fuel and food, police said.
Early Oct. 16 — the last day other family members had heard from the family — Anthony Cirigliano had exhibited paranoid behavior, state police said.
Fremont Police Chief Tim Rodwell said that he called 911 and that when officers arrived, he “was talking about issues or information that he had regarding the Sept. 11th attacks.”
The officers made sure everyone was safe and OK, spending about an hour with Anthony Cirigliano, and also talked to Suzette, Rodwell told WOOD. “Honestly, that’s a very abnormal thing to say and make a police report of,” he said.
Before they left, the officers told Anthony and Suzette Cirigliano to call police with any other issues and said they would be there to help, Rodwell said.
Rodwell said last week that investigators didn’t have any evidence of foul play.
But he told WOOD that everyone who knows the family was shocked by the disappearance.
“They all describe this as extremely abnormal behavior from Tony and Suzette,” he said.
An elderly relative who has dementia, whom the family was caring for, was found Monday walking the neighborhood, Rodwell said. She is now being cared for by other family members.
The two sons have autism, state police said.
Fremont is a town of around 4,500 about 35 miles north of Grand Rapids. The family has lived there for four years, Rodwell told the station. Before that, they lived in the Jasper County area of South Carolina.
