OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. – Osceola County deputies identified a body found over two weeks ago in a swampy area in Kissimmee as a 73-year-old man who was reported missing on Thanksgiving Day.
On Dec. 1, Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez said deputies found an unidentified body about one mile from the Kissimmee residence where Herman McClenton was last seen visiting family at Emerald Island Resort for the holiday. Lopez said they found the body, but were still waiting for the medical examiner’s office to positively identify him as of early December.
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“Thank you to the members of the Osceola and Brevard County Sheriff’s Offices for their continued and tireless search for Mr. McClenton,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. “The family of Mr. McClenton has been notified, and we extend our condolences for their loss.”
His family attended a news briefing with the sheriff’s office back in November amid the search.
“You never imagined that you will be in a situation. I mean, you see the news all the time and you know that these things can happen but you never expect it to be you,” one family member said in the briefing.
McClenton, who was originally from Eustis, had suffered from dementia and was caught on camera in an adjacent neighborhood on Friday, Nov. 25, a day after he was reported missing, deputies said.
Sheriff’s officials previously said they focused their search efforts on the neighborhood where McClenton was last seen and later found articles of clothing that matched what he had been wearing and a body deeper in the swamp near State Road 429.
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