Montgomery County police and Walter Reed Army Medical Center officials said Tuesday they believe a missing Iraq war veteran and Silver Spring resident who threatened suicide last week is safe and with his family in Michigan.
Montgomery County police spokesman Rodney Barnes said county police officers had spoken on the phone with somebody they believed to be Sgt. James David Doyle, 23, on Monday afternoon. Doyle had served two tours of duty in Iraq with the U.S. Army and was receiving treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder at Walter Reed, police officials said.
“We’ve spoken to him, we believe,” Barnes said. “But it’s Montgomery County policy that we must physically verify him before we can clear him from our [missing person] system.”
Walter Reed spokesman Chuck Dasey said Doyle, who most recently served with a battalion of the 1st Armored Division, was “in touch with his unit.”
“He’s with his family in Michigan,” Dasey said. “They’re trying to get him the medical care he needs.”
Police officials said Doyle called Walter Reed on Thursday from a Gaithersburg gas station and said he was contemplating killing himself. He called back on Friday morning to say he’d left the state.
Hospital officials confirmed Doyle had been receiving outpatient care at Walter Reed since late June 2006, but would not comment further about his treatment, citing patient privacy.
