BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN

PRESTONSBURG — Possible human remains found Friday in a car submerged in Dewey Lake are believed to be that of a Pigeon Roost man who disappeared 32 years ago.

Ruvil Hale, of Pigeon Roost, was 43 years old and being cared for at Paintsville Health Care Center when he disappeared from the center July 3, 1990. At the same time, a 1988 medium blue Ford Tempo was stolen from a nearby parking lot.

“I heard that they finally have found him after 32 years missing,” Max Hale, Ruvil’s son, said Friday. “I’ve been told that the car pulled out of Dewey Lake is 100 percent the car he took from the nursing home. I have to go for a DNA test to make sure. I might be jumping the gun until positive identification is made on the bones in the car, but I feel it’s him.”

At the time of Hale’s disappearance, he was 6-1, 208 pounds. He was being treated for a brain aneurysm and had an open skull injury. He has also previously suffered a stroke and responded slowly. He had frequent seizures, severe headaches, muscular weakness, especially in his legs, poor coordination, memory loss, a paralyzed throat that caused him to choke easily, drastic mood swings and double vision.

Without medication, Hale would worsen, causing him to become severely disoriented.