STEVENS POINT, Wis. — A family of four that has been missing out of Fremont, Michigan, since Sunday, Oct. 16 were found safely, police say.
Contact was made with the family around 11 a.m. Sunday morning in Steven's Point, Wisconsin. All family members were interviewed and police say they are safe.
"I think for the most part, people here in our community have been concerned about them and are grateful to find out that they're safe," said Tom Schmidt, a longtime Fremont resident who knows the Cirigliano family. "There's a lot of things that we don't understand about why they left things that are probably kind of concerning, but their welfare is really good news to find out."
The Cirigliano family still believes people are "after them," but their situation does not meet the criteria for protective custody, the Fremont Police Department said in a press release.
The family was last heard from a week ago when relatives said the father, Anthony, was acting paranoid.
Anthony made a 911 call the day of their disappearance, requesting immediate police protection due to sensitive information he had about September 11.
"It is of vital national interest," Cirigliano calmly says to a dispatcher. "It is related to September 11th. And people want to erase me from the face of the earth. I'm not crazy. Mr. Geeting knows me. I'm a Christian. I just need some help. And then the US government will take it from here. I know this sounds crazy. You don't have instructions for this. Please send someone that knows Geeting and can talk to US authorities, please."
Schmidt described the 911 call as "kind of different – strange, maybe."
The family was next spotted filling up their van in Michigan's Upper Peninsula Monday.
The Ciriglianos left behind their pets and a family member who requires full-time care, who is now in the care of other relatives.
Schmidt, who recalls that his granddaughters would play with Noah and Brandon in their neighborhood, describes the family as kind and considerate.
"We didn't know Tony as well as we knew Suzette and Sherry and the boys," he said. "So we don't know exactly what he was thinking or what's going through his mind. We think about probably that he was concerned about the welfare of the family. And so whatever decisions that they made, was related that. So it is kind of interesting to find out, I don't know, if we need to know all of the answers, it's better to know that they're safe and that they're moving, moving forward with their lives."
Police say the investigation is now closed.
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