A Denver man who went missing following the disappearance of his wife was arrested Wednesday in Arkansas after he jumped off a log with a noose around his neck.
Frank Schilt, 53, was in the Yell County Jail in Danville on burglary and trespassing charges. He was found in the woods about 60 miles west of Little Rock, said David Fisher, division chief of investigations for Denver police.
Teresa Schilt, 51, who was last seen Feb. 24 at her house, on West Chenango Avenue, is still missing.
“We do not consider this a homicide investigation,” Fisher said. “It is a missing-person investigation.”
But Denver police say the circumstances of the couple’s disappearances are suspicious. Denver detectives were interviewing Schilt and processing evidence in Arkansas on Thursday, Fisher said.
Frank Schilt was discovered by a police dog named Carly about 5 miles from his campsite in the Ouachita National Forest.
Tree-cutters spotted Schilt and called authorities, who had been alerted by Denver police that Schilt might be in the area.
Carly ran up to Schilt as he was standing on a log propped up against a tree, said Carly’s handler, Cpl. Tod Johnson of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. A white rope was tied to a branch above him, and it was connected to a slip-knot noose that was around his neck, Johnson said.
Frank Schilt jumped, but the rope came off his neck as Carly came up to him, officials said.
“We knew that if it was two minutes later, we would have found him dead,” Johnson said.
Frank Schilt told authorities he had burned his credit cards and other personal identification.
Yell County investigators found Schilt’s car, a Mercury sedan, without a license plate and with a document signing over power of attorney to his 19- year-old son, Emmett, authorities said.
Denver police on March 21 interviewed the couple’s daughter, Melody Schilt, 15, who gave an account about cross-country trips by her, her father and their dog, Fisher said.
Frank Schilt traveled across the country, allegedly trying to meet up with his wife, but he always gave his daughter an excuse for why he never was able to find her, according to Fisher.
“There’s a lot of conflicting information,” Fisher said. “We don’t know what happened.”
Teresa Schilt had argued with her husband about inheritance money that she had received and that her husband, an unemployed computer expert, had borrowed, sheriff’s officials told The Courier, a newspaper in Russellville, Ark.
According to Melody Schilt, her father told her that her mom traveled to Cleveland to be with an aunt who had a stroke, Fisher said. Days later, he told Melissa her mother had then gone to Chicago to be with her own mother, who had passed out and was hospitalized, Fisher said.
Melody, her dog and her father traveled to Chicago on March 6, but Frank Schilt told his daughter that Teresa had left the hospital an hour before they arrived. They went to their hotel to wait for her, but she never arrived, Fisher said.
By March 12, they had returned home, and Frank Schilt told his daughter his wife’s great aunt had died and she had gone back to Cleveland for the funeral.
Frank Schilt reportedly left town March 13 for a job interview in Little Rock. However, police believe he has been in Garland, Texas, and Conroy, Ark., and possibly Memphis, Tenn., since he left Denver.
Johnson was fishing on his day off when he was called to help search for Frank Schilt. Carly found a scent from a backpack that led to Schilt about 400 yards away. At his campsite, Schilt had a sleeping bag, small knives, a hatchet, a tent and candles but no food.
“I’m sure he was really hungry,” Johnson said.
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-820-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com.
