It was a long, cold night for an elderly Hopkins woman who got lost while walking to a neighbor’s house Tuesday evening.
The woman, identified by Hopkins County Sheriff Butch Adams as Lola Andree, frequently walked to visit with the neighbor who lived about a mile away.
Sheriff Adams said his department was notified after the woman failed to arrive at her destignation.
“We were notified about a missing woman who had walked to a neighbor’s house and had called that neighbor and said, ‘I’m walking to your house.’” Adams said. “That same neighbor called her son, who lived between the missing person and his mother’s house, and asked him if he had seen her.”
The woman never made it past the neighbor’s son’s home. Family members started looking for Andree but were unable to find her and called for help from the sheriff’s office.
Along with the volunteers on the ground, a Texas Department of Public Safety helicopter was called in to help with the search but encountered problems.
Adams said the helicopter search was hampered by heavy woods and livestock in an attempt to use infrared thermal imaging equipment.
“The only problem, when it was not wooded you had cows, you had horses, so you had a lot of heat signatures and you had to get down low enough to see if it was an animal or the woman,” the sheriff said.
Contact was made with the woman via cell phone Wednesday morning, and she told officers she was on a hill facing the sun with a “body of water” behind her.
Using that information, the officers and volunteers were able to narrow the search area.
By about 10 a.m. searchers had found the woman and reported she appeared to be in good condition but was cold.
Lt. Rusty Stillwaggoner and volunteer Reggie Durch made contact with Mrs. Andree and brought her home, where she was welcomed by family members and searchers.
After being checked over by paramedics, the woman declined a trip to the hospital, just happy to be home with friends and family and getting warm again.
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written by a guest , March 19, 2010
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