Aletha Gee Walton is a 69-year-old Virginia resident that went missing in the woods. When her relatives started noticing that they hadn’t heard anything from the senior lady, they called the cops. Their investigation showed that the last time anybody saw the senior lady, she was in her home two days before the missing person report was filed.
Alone
Despite experiencing the onset of dementia, Aletha insisted on living alone. She is a very independent lady who didn’t want to bother people. She also rarely tells anyone where she goes and what she is doing. This is why it took a couple of days before anyone tried to find her.
With the elderly woman confirmed to be missing, the local authorities immediately created several teams to search for her.
Fresh graduate
One of the rescue teams included a smart dog named Molly. She and her trainer had just come from training school and were already put into action. The new K9 recruit used everything she learned to help locate the missing woman.
In the meantime, Aletha’s family kept getting worried as each day passed without any good news. Aside from the authorities, the community was also helping to locate the lost woman. Their biggest fear was that the lady was kidnapped or something worse happened to her. To top it off, the weather was awful at that time.
They finally laid their fears to rest eight days after the senior woman went missing. Molly found Aletha.
In the woods
The K9 officer’s keen sense of smell and hearing led her to the lost woman. She was in a thickly wooded area, three miles away from her home. Thankfully, the senior lady did not incur any injuries, but she was disoriented and dehydrated. When Molly found her, Aletha was sitting on a stump, loudly singing a song.
The elderly lady was then rushed to a hospital and got treated for exposure and exhaustion. She stayed there for several days to recuperate. It had been a rough week for Aletha, and if it hadn’t been for her rescuers, she could have suffered a worse fate.
Source: Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources via Facebook