A woman with dementia, lost for several hours, was located safely by Arrowsmith Search and Rescue in Parksville over the long weekend.
ASAR was called out just after 7 p.m. on July 31 after the 81-year-old’s husband reported her missing, according to Ken Neden, search and rescue manager. The husband searched on his own for more than three hours after noticing she was no longer with him at the Sand Sculpting Exhibition.
“She had a bit of a head start on us,” Neden said. “But we put teams driving because you never know, with that kind of time she could have potentially gone a long ways.”
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Within 90 minutes of being called out, ASAR located the woman in the Surfside RV Park with help from residents, Neden said. She was uninjured and sitting in an enclosed porch area, out of sight of the road. ASAR was in the process of calling in support from Nanaimo and Alberni SAR when she was found.
Neden encouraged people not to hestitate to call and added there is no charge for calling ASAR.