After a week-long search, Ron and Mary Tarnowski were discovered dead in swampy area in Duluth on Aug. 5. The couple was married for 59 years. (Amber Ferguson/The Washington Post) 
 
 Ron and Mary Tarnowski spent their days confined almost entirely to their home in Duluth, Minn. 
 
 Decades ago, at age 42, Mary Tarnowski suffered from a stroke that left her paralyzed on the right side of her body, making it difficult for her to move or speak. Her husband, Ron, served as her caretaker for more than 35 years, assisting her with daily tasks and rarely leaving her side. 
 
 But in recent years, Ron Tarnowski, an Air Force veteran and retired captain for the local fire department, began showing signs of early-stage dementia, his son and police told The Washington Post. Suddenly, the tough man with a “commanding presence,” adventurous spirit and the build of a former football player needed to be taken care of, too. 
 
 Getting around became even more difficult for the Tarnowskis — Mary, 78, and Ron, 81. The couple hardly ever left the home, which their son, Karl Tarnowski, built adjacent to his own so he could keep an eye on them. 
 
 Occasionally, Mary Tarnowski would ask her husband to go for a drive, perhaps to nearby restaurants. But they never stayed away for very long and would always be back well before nightfall. 
 
 “When the sun sets they’ve always been home,” Karl Tarnowski, the younger of the couple’s two sons, said in an interview with The Washington Post. 
 
 So it was troubling when, on the evening of July 29, Karl Tarnowski and his wife found the elderly couple’s home empty and their Chevy Tahoe gone. 
 
 Mary and Ron Tarnowski had driven away that day without telling anyone. They left behind a cellphone, Mary’s wheelchair and purse, and their medications. At 10 p.m., their worried children called the police to report them missing. 
 
 For the next seven days, the family, law enforcement and hundreds of community members in Duluth launched an extensive search effort that covered thousands of miles. 
 
 Relatives and local authorities posted fliers all over the surrounding area and posted updates on a Facebook group called “Find Ron and Mary Tarnowski,” which was followed by more than 7,000 people across Minnesota and the United States. Retired Duluth firefighters joined the search for one of their own. 
 
 Duluth residents tied purple ribbons around trees and on businesses, in honor of the Alzheimer’s Association. They held news conferences outside the Tarnowskis’ home attended by the Duluth police chief and about 100 community members. 
 
 Relatives and police officials weighed several possible theories of where the couple could have gone. Perhaps they had headed northwest to Grand Rapids, Minn., where their sons had been spending the day. Maybe they were stopping by their family’s hunting shack, about 30 miles away from their Duluth home. 
 
 On Saturday afternoon, eight days after the couple went missing, the family received their answer, and a tragic end to their strenuous search. A U.S. Border Patrol helicopter found the couple’s Chevy Tahoe on an overgrown, abandoned driveway in a swampy area off the road just two miles away from the family’s hunting property. They were near Brookston, a town about 30 miles from their Duluth home. 
 
 Mary’s Tarnowski’s body was discovered inside the Tahoe, and her husband’s body was found outside the vehicle, about 50 feet from the road. 
 
 Authorities suspect Ron Tarnowski may have driven onto the trail accidentally before getting his car stuck in the mud, said Lt. Mike Ceynowa, public information officer for the Duluth Police Department. He said police think Tarnowski left the vehicle to seek help. 
 
 Autopsy results are pending, but Karl Tarnowski said there are signs that his mother died of a combination of dehydration and heat while sitting in the car on a day with temperatures in the upper 80s. There is also evidence that Ron Tarnowski had fallen down while trudging through the mud, his son said. 
 
 Both are believed to have died July 29, the day they went missing, the son said. No foul play is suspected, according to authorities. 
 
 “It’s a horrific case,” Ceynowa said. “Nobody wants to lose their parents this way.” 
 
 But in the parents’ final moments, Ceynowa said, Ron Tarnowski “was doing what he’s done for years: trying to help his wife and take care of her.” 
 
 Karl Tarnowski does not know what prompted his parents to drive so far away, but he suspects his father’s dementia played a role. His father rarely visited the hunting cabin in recent years, and he never traveled there without one of his two sons. Even then, he would be on edge, wanting to hurry home before sundown to take care of his wife. 
 
 The morning before they went missing, “everything seemed totally normal,” Karl Tarnowski said. His wife gave his mother a bath and cooked the couple some breakfast. Later that morning, he left town for the day, telling his father, “See you later, Papa.” 
 
 “He said, ‘Take your time, but hurry back,'” Tarnowski said. “He said, “We’ll be here anyway. We never go anywhere.” 
 
 Evidence uncovered during the course of the seven-day search revealed some details about the rest of their day. The couple stopped by a local Wells Fargo Bank, where Ron Tarnowski withdrew an amount of cash typical for him. Then they stopped at a restaurant for lunch, Karl Tarnowski said. 
 
 The map shows the distance from Ron and Mary Tarnowski’s home to where their bodies were found. (Google Maps) 
 
 At some point afterward, they headed northwest on Highway 2 toward their hunting property. It was a “beautiful” summer day, Ceynowa said, “a day we all hope for in the north.” 
 
 A video from security cameras showed the couple in one of their final moments, walking through a bar and grill in Brookston, Minn., possibly hours before their vehicle got stuck. 
 
 The surveillance footage captured the extent of the couple’s immobility. They could be seen slowly walking into the restaurant. Ron Tarnowski led the way, trudging along with his cane and holding his wife’s hand as she walked behind him, dragging a leg. It took 16 minutes for the couple to take a bathroom break, Karl Tarnowski said. 
 
 They had been married for 59 years. 
 
 Lately, caring for his wife had became a taxing responsibility for Ron Tarnowski. And in recent years, his mental deterioration became a challenge for his wife, their son said. 
 
 But throughout these tribulations, Karl Tarnowski said, “their love was outstanding for one another.” 
 
 Ron Tarnowski joined the Air Force before graduating from high school and was stationed in the Philippines for a long time, his son said. He actively volunteered with the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal organization. As a father, he could be a “kind of harsh person” at times, but he had a “heart of gold,” Karl Tarnowski said. 
 
 His father often offered to work on welding projects for neighbors and friends, and would always say “this weld is guaranteed,” Tarnowski recounted. “If it breaks, I’ll weld it again.” 
 
 Mary Tarnowski was a “big-hearted” mother who “loved people” and always looked forward to playing cards with friends. Before her stroke, she volunteered with the census every 10 years, participated in her children’s parent-teacher associations and made sure everything in the home was organized. She never had a driver’s license, so her husband would frequently drive her around town. 
 
 “They went everywhere together,” said Mark Lavalier, a retired firefighter who worked with Ron Tarnowski for several years and who assisted with the search efforts. “You’d never see one without the other.” 
 
 The story of the missing couple resonated with families across the state, particularly those with elderly parents, Lavalier said. 
 
 “Everybody’s got parents. Everybody watches them get old and realizes they become vulnerable,” Lavalier said. “That’s what people reacted to. This could be my parents. This could be everybody’s parents.” 
 
 The story of the Tarnowskis also underscored the dangers vulnerable adults can face when they leave home with no way of being reached or tracked. The OnStar device on the Chevy Tahoe was not activated, and neither Tarnowski was accustomed to carrying and using a cellphone. 
 
 Karl Tarnowski urged the importance of making sure vulnerable adults carry GPS tracking devices or cellphones at all times. 
 
 “If there’s any positive outcome to this,” he said, it’s that, perhaps, “it’s going to help somebody else find their parents someday.” 
 
 More from Morning Mix 
 
 Boy Scouts’ sailing lesson turns deadly when mast strikes power lines on Texas lake 
 
 Ted Bradford was exonerated for a 1996 rape. Why his attorneys still went looking for the real culprit. 
 
 After months of bullying, her parents say, a 12-year-old New Jersey girl killed herself. They blame the school. ||||| A U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Air and Marine Operations helicopter crew discovered the elderly Duluth couple’s vehicle in a remote location at about 3:45 p.m. Saturday, according to the Duluth Police Department. The investigation into the deaths was ongoing Saturday night, but foul play wasn’t suspected. It appeared the couple’s SUV had gotten stuck, police said. 
 
 They were found about a mile from the family’s hunting camp, according to a statement posted on the “Find Ron and Mary Tarnowski” Facebook page that family members had started to aid the search. The camp is near U.S. Highway 2 between Brookston and Floodwood, and a few miles from where the couple had been last seen, the Country Corner store. 
 
 “The family would like to thank the many men and women of law enforcement, the active and retired firefighters, the Alzheimer’s Association, and the overwhelming support of the community and the media for the diligent efforts this past week,” the Facebook statement read. 
 
 Aircraft involved in the search had been grounded Friday because of thunderstorms in the region, officials said, but returned to the air on Saturday. 
 
 The news prompted an outpouring of condolences and support on social media for the Tarnowski family — including the couple’s sons, Kurt and Karl, and Karl’s wife Bev — who had been tireless in recent days in organizing search efforts and checking on possible sightings. 
 
 Ron, 82, and Mary, 78, had been last seen July 29 at the Country Corner store along Highway 2. Ron was in the early stages of dementia, and Mary suffered from right-side paralysis and had difficulty speaking. They lived in a home Karl Tarnowski built for his parents, adjacent to his own home in Duluth. They generally spent most of their time at home, going out only for an occasional meal at nearby restaurants. 
 
 They weren’t carrying cellphones or credit cards when they went missing, and an OnStar system in their vehicle was not activated, which left authorities with few clues to pinpoint a search over the past week. 
 
 “We're not looking for a needle in a haystack, because we haven't found the haystack yet,” Duluth Police Chief Mike Tusken said at a Saturday morning gathering at the Tarnowskis’ home. 
 
 More than 100 volunteers, some wearing purple T-shirts and ribbons for Alzheimer’s awareness, gathered in Ron and Mary’s driveway to begin another day of searching for the couple Saturday. A photo of Ron and Mary was taped to their garage with a sign above it: “Missing 8 days.” 
 
 About 20 current and retired Duluth firefighters were among the crowd of volunteers to search for one of their own. Ron was a Duluth firefighter for 31 years. 
 
 Retired Duluth firefighters Jim Reed and Mark Lavalier had already been out searching in the past week. Lavalier worked with Ron and lives one block south of the Tarnowskis. Trying to hold back tears on Saturday morning, before the couple was found, he said, “If it was me, I know that they’d be there for me.” 
 
 Reed didn’t know Ron well, but said “nobody deserves this, to be lost” and to be confused with dementia. 
 
 Law enforcement’s efforts to find the Tarnowskis ramped up on Saturday with a new emergency command center set up in Pike Lake and a new tip line with two dispatchers dedicated to the case. 
 
 During the Saturday morning gathering, Tusken said the police department’s violent crimes unit, which handles missing person cases, had been working on the case since Day One and had tracked down dozens of leads in six counties and two states. 
 
 The police department decided to change tactics on Friday night due to the expanding search for the couple, and the command center created a centralized location for the various agencies assisting in the search. 
 
 At the command center on Saturday, before the Tarnowskis were found, there was a steady stream of phone calls with tips and search updates. 
 
 Law enforcement officials studied a gas station’s surveillance video, cross-referencing it with Google Maps and a tip to determine the likelihood that Ron and Mary’s vehicle might have been captured on the video. 
 
 On the wall, areas already searched were being marked on a large map of Northeastern Minnesota. Authorities had notified FedEx, UPS and rural mail carriers to keep an eye out, and some student pilots had flown over the region to search while getting in their practice hours. 
 
 Reed, the retired Duluth firefighter who had gathered with dozens of other volunteers Saturday morning at the Tarnowskis’ home, said at that time that the community response “is a big circle. Hopefully somebody will do it for us or one of our loved ones if it happened to them. That’s how we do it. We live in a society where we all got to help each other out.” 
 
 Andrew Krueger of the News Tribune staff contributed to this report. ||||| DULUTH, Minn. - Authorities are releasing more information about the elderly Duluth couple found dead on Saturday. 
 
 Duluth police say Ron Tarnowski, 82, and Mary Tarnowski, 78, were found on Saturday shortly before 4 p.m., after they were missing for eight days. 
 
 A U.S. Border Patrol Helicopter found their vehicle in a rural area about 150 yards off of Highway 2 in the Brookston, Minnesota area. St. Louis County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Wade Rasch says it appears the couple drove off the road onto a swampy trail that was likely only used as a snowmobile trail during the winter. 
 
 Rasch said Mary Tarnowski was found in the car, which was stuck on the trail, and Ron Tarnowski was found closer to the highway. Rasch said it appears Ron went to get help after the car became stuck. 
 
 RELATED: Police seek help finding missing Duluth couple 
 
 The autopsy results are pending, but Rasch said it's likely the couple died of exposure. 
 
 A post on the Find Ron and Mary Tarnowski Facebook page stated, "It is with great sadness that we must report that Ron and Mary Tarnowski have been found deceased in a remote area about a mile from their hunting camp." 
 
 The couple had been last seen on surveillance video at a Country Corner store near Brookston, Minnesota, around 1 p.m. on Saturday, July 29. 
 
 Ron had early-stage dementia, and Mary had right-sided paralysis, making it difficult to speak.
– "We're not looking for a needle in a haystack, because we haven't found the haystack yet," said the police chief of Duluth, Minnesota, Saturday morning in regards to the case of an elderly couple who had been missing for 8 days. By the afternoon, a helicopter had found both the haystack and the needle, to tragic ends. Ron and Mary Tarnowski were found dead in the Brookston area, near a hunting shack the family owned about 30 miles from Duluth. Foul play isn't suspected. The Washington Post reports the couple lived near one of their sons, Karl Tarnowski, who noticed they uncharacteristically didn't return home on July 29. The Duluth News Tribune reports the couple didn't have cellphones or credit cards on them, nor did their car's OnStar system engage, leaving authorities with little to go on. But there was, perhaps, a general area: Their last sighting had been at 1pm on the day they went missing at a corner store near Brookston. KARE reports the Tarnowskis' Chevy Tahoe was found in a remote area, apparently stuck on what seemed to be a "swampy" trail typically accessed by snowmobilers in the winter. Mary, 78, was in the vehicle; Ron, 82, was outside it, some 50 feet from the road, suggesting he had gone in search of help. Karl tells the Post that it's thought both died the day they went missing; Mary is believed to have succumbed to dehydration and heat. The couple is depicted as a devoted one: A stroke at age 42 left Mary paralyzed on her right side; Ron was constantly by her side, but had himself begun to show early signs of dementia. (This couple was found 75 years after they went missing.)