‘God Led Me To Find Him’: Woman Thanks God After She Found Missing Man Wandering On Atlanta Streets

A mistake committed by a mental health facility proved costly after they took a man from there and dropped him at the wrong place which led to him wandering in the cold for many days till one God-fearing mother found him.

Butts County sheriff has taken action and sent Gov. Brian Kemp a letter to open an investigation into a Clayton County mental health facility after they dropped off a man with mental disabilities at the wrong place.

Mario Scott was the man who had to spend many days wandering in the cold and was found Wednesday. He was found by a mother and her 15-year-old son who recognized him walking down the road.

“I prayed the night before that he be found and he be safe,” said Monique Norris, who found Scott. “I didn’t know that God was going to use me.” She said God led her to the downtown Atlanta corner where she rescued Scott on Wednesday. “I said, ‘I think that’s him right there,’ and she was like, ‘You’re sure?’ So we turned around at the gas station and we came back and that was him,” said Elijah Bostic, Norris’ son.

“I just said, ‘Lord, thank you, Jesus.’ Because I had just prayed and said, ‘Lord just guide me in the right direction to find him,” Norris said. “I just got him and called (Sheriff) Gary Long and put him in my car.”

Long said that Riverwoods Behavioral Health in Riverdale took insufficient steps to contact Scott’s family to return him to Jackson where he resides. He was dropped off in front of a downtown Atlanta homeless shelter which he never checked into and left him missing for days in the icy cold weather.

A Riverwoods representative said that that Riverwoods’ policy is to not discharge a patient to a particular place without the patient’s consent to ensure a safe discharge. “In conjunction with the district attorney’s office, we’re going to be reviewing the facts of the case as Butts County has uncovered them and determining whether or not to launch a criminal investigation,” said Clayton County police Maj. Tony Thuman about the mental health facility, which is in Clayton County.

Long said that it wasn’t the sole case after he sent a letter to the governor post speaking to another family with a similar experience to Scott’s, and he’s also seen a Facebook post about yet another.

“I just did what God told me to do,” Norris said, she knew Scott from the time she was a Jackson resident and knows the streets of Atlanta because her family and she traveled there many times to give out goods to the homeless. “It was God, you know, making sure that we made sure that he came home this day,” Bostic said.

The governor’s office says the letter is being referred to the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. “Thanks to the Good Lord above our resident is now home safe and not deceased or still missing wandering the streets of Atlanta,” the letter said. Long indicated that he sent the letter to legislators as well because it showed how broken the mental health system was in the state.

Matthew 25:44,45 “Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’