NBC 5 Viewer Finds Missing Man

An alert NBC 5 viewer says she helped Arlington police find a missing man.

Julio Merlos said his wife, Patricia, was watching NBC 5 newscasts Wednesday morning and saw a story about 72-year-old Laurent Baoko, who was missing at the time.

Arlington police had started their search near Baoko's home in the 900 block of Fence Line Road.

Patricia Merlos recognized Baoko nearly six miles away, near a Jack in the Box restaurant.

Merlos, who was on her way to work, stopped to talk to Baoko and called police to share his location.

"My wife stopped in the parking lot of Jack in the Box, 'she asked him do you speak French?'" Julio Merlos said. "He said 'Yes, yes, yes', and she knew, in that moment, it was him."

Police had described Baoko as walking with a significant limp and as speaking primilarily in French.

Merlos says that hearing the man's accent helped her identify Baoko after she stopped to speak with him.

"One thing my wife does every day is pray, she says, 'I hope I can do something good today,'" Julio Merlos said. "and this morning, she said, I hope they find him, but she never expected it would be her."

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