Missing Man Found By Monta Vista High School Senior

Written by L.A. Chung 
Santa Clara County Sheriff's deputies are calling a Monta Vista High School senior ''a hero'' after he followed a hunch and found a missing man Friday morning, who apparently spent the night outside.

Santa Clara County Sheriff's deputies had deployed a helicopter and searched all around the area Thursday afternoon and into the night, looking for James Norberg, 63, who has dementia and is mute. His family reported him missing at 5 p.m.

''This young man is a hero,'' said Capt. Ken Binder of the West Valley Patrol Division of the Santa Clara Sheriff's Office. ''He took notice of the description and on his way to school he looked in the bushes and found him.''

Mark Sinks, 18, told his mother it was possible that the man could be in a remote corner of Kennedy Middle School, where there is a stand of bamboo trees and a steep rise.

It also happens to be directly over the fence from his family's home, and a spot Sinks knows well, because he and his sister pass it when they walk to school each morning.

His mother, Britta, and he talked about the fact that the man was still missing that morning and another citywide alert had gone out, asking people to check their backyards.

''I kind of thought he could be there,'' said Sinks, who was getting ready to walk to school for his last day of classes in his high school career. ''What are the chances?''

He opened the back gate that leads to the southwest corner of Kennedy Middle School and looked intently. He spied a blue sleeve, and saw an older man back there, deep inside the bamboo, sitting on a ledge.

''I said, 'Mom, he's there! Go look, I'm going to call 911'''

He nervously called. ''I've never called 911 before.''

He went out and approached Norberg, who did not speak or react, Sinks said. But his eyes were wide open and he didn't appear to be in distress, he added -- at least from his First Aid training as an Eagle Scout, it didn't appear so.

''I said, 'Hi, sir. I'm here to help you. And more help is on the way.''

His mother came out with a jacket and a glass of warm water that he took eagerly. Norberg put on the jacket. ''She was rubbing his back and helping him drink,'' Sinks said. 

When a Sheriff's deputy arrived, he asked Sinks some questions, then pulled out a paper with Norberg's description. Then he radioed in: ''We got him.''

Sinks hung back while as eight deputies and EMTs arrived. They got him to a fire rescue vehicle across the field by Hyannisport Drive. They sat him down in the baseball dugout, until Norberg's wife came running up and embraced her husband.

Then she came up to Sinks and hugged him, thanking him, asking, ''How did you find him?'' he said.

''It was pretty emotional,'' he said. ''I'm just happy that we were able to find him and his wife and his family will be able to sleep tonight.''