Man missing for weeks found on walkabout

A 51-year-old Petaluma man missing since June 5 has been found safe in Napa after an extensive walk-about, police said Friday.

According to Petaluma police, Barbara Martinez, the wife of the missing man, J. Roy Martinez, called police investigators on Friday night to report that she had received a phone call from her husband and he was in the city of Napa.

Martinez told police she drove to Napa to pick up her husband and drove him straight to Kaiser Hospital in Santa Rosa.

She said he had an injured ankle appeared to have lost weight.

On June 5, Martinez called police to report that her husband never arrived at work that day.

Investigators launched a missing persons search, and learned that Martinez had disappeared in 2012 when he felt stressed, but returned after several days.

Martinez’s car was located two days later near the Petaluma library.

Inside the car were his personal belongings, including his driver’s license, credit cards, and cell phone.

Martinez was contacted by Petaluma at Kaiser and he told the investigating officer that he had been feeling stressed out and wanted to get away from work and other stressful situations he had going on in his life.

Martinez told police he went walking, covering ground from Healdsburg to Sacramento.

He said he walked along railroad tracks to avoid detection since he knew he had probably been reported missing.

He ate mostly fruit he found on trees along the routes he traveled.

Martinez told the investigating officer he was looking forward to going home and seeing his children.

Bay City News

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