Three elderly Woodland residents who were reported missing Tuesday afternoon were found safe just before 11:30 p.m. in Gorman, more than 300 miles and five hours away from their intended destination, Woodland police reported.

Personnel at the California Highway Patrol’s El Tejon office contacted the Woodland Police Department to report that James Popplewell, 90, approached a CHP officer at a gas station in Gorman to ask for directions to Davis. The officer discovered that Popplewell and his companions — Roy Ross, 87; and Virgilyn McCann, 96 — had been reported as missing and at risk. The CHP was coordinating their return to Woodland late Tuesday, Woodland police Cpl. Darren Imus said.

The trio were reported missing at about 3 p.m. Tuesday when they failed to return to their home at St. John’s Retirement Village in Woodland after leaving at about noon to visit a friend in Davis. They were in Popplewell’s 2005 Toyota Corolla, but they never arrived at Horizon West, a skilled-nursing facility on Pole Line Road.

McCann has been known to suffer from dementia and Ross from hallucinations, according to Imus. Popplewell, who was driving, has no known mental-health issues but may have been unfamiliar with the route to Davis.

Imus said officers have traveled possible routes between Woodland and Davis, called hospitals and checked in with area towing businesses, but there have been no sightings of the missing trio.

“We really don’t have a lot to go on,” Imus said earlier Tuesday. “We’re keeping our fingers crossed.”

— Reach Lauren Keene at [email protected] or (530) 747-8048. Follow her at www.twitter.com/laurenkeene

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Virgilyn_McCann

Virgilyn McCann, 96, of Woodland, went missing Tuesday afternoon along with two other elderly Woodland residents who were also headed on a trip to Davis. Police sought the public’s help in finding McCann as well as James Popplewell, 90, and Roy Ross, 87. They have since been located.

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