Maine game wardens found an Alexander couple Thursday afternoon who had been missing for days – one had died and the other was hypothermic but conscious.

Game Warden Jake Voter found 72-year-old Pamela Helmstadter in a forested area more than a mile from her home around 2:30 p.m., the Maine Warden Service said in an evening statement. She had been missing for more than three days.

Another warden, Kayle Hamilton, located the body of Pamela’s husband, 82-year-old John Helmstadter, about a half hour later, roughly 200 yards from where his wife was located, the service said. It was not immediately clear when he died.

Pamela was “severely hypothermic,” with a body temperature of 90.7 when authorities found her, the service said. Her dog, a black lab named Lucy, was by her side.

Temperatures in Alexander dropped below freezing overnight Wednesday into Thursday, according to data collected by Weather Underground. Early Thursday morning, as officials searched for the couple, the temperature fell to as low as 28 degrees.

Despite her low body temperature, Pamela was able to recall what had happened during a Sunday walk through the woods behind their home, the warden service said.

The pair lost the trail, at which point John fell down and was unable to get up, the service said. Pamela attempted to find help on foot because neither was carrying a cell phone, but became disoriented trying to find her way back home.

“She said she had given up hope of being found, but today heard the Warden Service Airplane circling over her five different times and it gave her hope,” the service said in the statement.

Downeast EMS transported the woman to Calais Community Hospital for observation, the service said.

Pamela and John Helmstadter Courtesy Maine Warden Service

The Helmstadters were reported missing to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office Wednesday night, after a neighbor who regularly checks in on them noticed that a package delivered to the couple had not moved. The neighbor took the package into their home Tuesday and spotted it right where she had left it the next day.

That neighbor also noticed that the couple’s second dog, who had accompanied them on the walk, had returned to the home alone. She found that dog outside the house Wednesday, the service said.

Heather Henry-Tenan, who lives next door but was not the one to report the couple missing, said the Helmstadters mostly kept to themselves.

Officials asked Henry-Tenan if they could review footage from her security cameras during their search, she said.

John had been sick, Henry-Tenan said, and she rarely saw him outside the house. She added the swath of forest the couple had been walking in was difficult to traverse.

“I was surprised to hear that he was walking with her,” Henry-Tenan said on a Thursday night phone call.

Members of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office and the Maine Forest Service joined the wardens in their search, utilizing search and rescue dogs and an overhead plane to locate the couple, the warden service said.