Update: UI police locate 73-year-old man missing after Oregon-Hawkeye game

IOWA CITY — After launching a broad public search for a 73-year-old man who disappeared after the Iowa-Oregon football game at Kinnick Stadium on Saturday afternoon and remained missing through the night, officers Sunday afternoon announced he’d been found “and is safe.”

The University of Iowa Department of Public Safety didn’t share additional details — including where Jerome “Jerry” Lepperd lived or how and where he was found. But the UI police thanked its partners at the Des Moines Police Department for their assistance.

Lepperd — who officers said was unfamiliar with the area and could become “easily confused or disoriented” — got separated from his group as they were leaving Kinnick around 6 p.m. He didn’t have access to a vehicle, and police said he might have been headed toward the Hancher parking lot.

Described as having a bandage on his forehead from a recent surgery and last seen at Kinnick wearing glasses, a black rain jacket, black rain pants, and black tennis shoes, officials issued a broad appeal for anyone with information to contact the department.

Police didn’t immediately say whether information from the public helped officers find Lepperd.

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

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