Please consider reaching out to media and using social media to get a wider net. Although it sounds like your sister couldn't walk all that far, please consider she may have been able to get a ride from someone. Where would she ask to be taken? Her former home? Her childhood home? Could she direct someone there?
A few months back a man with early stage ALZ went missing in our area for several days from his favorite fishing spot, leaving his car and fishing gear behind. He was found over 60 miles away at a truck stop. Apparently he had gotten lost when leaving his fishing spot, reached a road, got a ride to a local convenience store, got another ride from there to the truck stop and spent a couple of days waiting in the restaurant for someone to pick him up. When the manager called the sheriff's department, he was identified immediately. Another man with dementia was found last year behind a store at a shopping center; people had looked in the center's parking lots and store fronts, but not the rear areas on the first couple of sweeps.
Please understand that ALs are residential living. The residents can come and go as they wish. Some have cars. Moms AL was a mixture of people, no MC section. Yes, they watched the Dementia patients but would not guarantee that a resident would not get out. As a visitor, I knew which ones should not leave so I didn't allow them out when I went in. If your LO constantly is trying to escape then they need a higher level of care.
So true Joann. Several times this week I have gone to get groceries at Nob Hill and there are 2-3 assisted livings directly behind the store. Each time, I saw an elderly from one of the AL sitting at the entrance to the store parking lot on his rollator with a cardboard sign. The sign has stuff about peace and love and being American. He‘s not begging for money but people hand it to him & he takes it. The road the entrance is on has a 45 MPH speed limit (meaning people are driving 55mph on average) so I think it’s dangerous for him to be out there because he gets up off the rollator when someone in a car offers him money. But he’s not a prisoner of the AL, he is free to go sit out there.
Also, could you please update your profile so we have an idea in what part of the country you and your sister lived? Some of us may be aware of other services in those areas. At one time in my life I considered volunteering for the CAP, Civil Air Patrol, which participates in search and rescue ops.
Also, if your sister was anywhere near hiking or climbing areas, there might be a SAR op that could help look for her.
Karen, how frail is your sister, i.e., is she able to walk, say a mile? Did the police create a radius of the potential walking distance from the AL place? That would establish an initial search parameter. Then teams would search those areas by section, probably with a search dog.
Where do you live? In a northern or southern state (your profile doesn't provide any information)? That would determine generally how long she could last outside.
If it hasn't already been done, get your friends and family to scout out local facilities and ask if you can post missing person posters on their bulletin boards. Contact the local papers and news channels and share the story, asking for people to watch out for her.
Does she use the Internet? Have e-mail? If so, have the police checked her activity to determine if she was corresponding with anyone, and/or planned to meet someone? What about mail? Do you or does she receive it at the AL, and is it delivered to her by a staff member who might remember what she may have received?
Phone records? Land line and cell phone records should be searched to determine with whom she might have been in touch.
Financial activity? That should be checked as well, to determine if she had contact with anyone who might have been a scammer, or what she may have purchased (bus ticket, or something to indicate if she had travel plans, perhaps to meet someone.)
Also, I don't know if ALs keep logs of residents' activity, or have CCTV monitors at exits. Those, especially the monitors, should be checked, for clothing (and photos for news reports), as well as to see if anyone met her outside the facility.
Im so sorry this has happened to your sister! I cannot imagine what you are going through. Please use social media, news programs, what/whoever can get your sisters info and pic out to the public....please let us know, we all care. Sending calming energies to you.
If you have Facebook then create a public post with your sisters picture & last known whereabouts and ask everyone to share it. Post it in every local group you can think of. My city has neighborhood watch Facebook groups, crime watch groups, etc so if your area has anything like that, post her picture there. Also ask the local police department to post it on their Facebook page. Send her photo to local media. We just had a missing man with domains syndrome and he was found thanks to Facebook. Good luck!
Oh my God, Karen. I am so incredibly sorry. I absolutely CANNOT even begin to imagine what you are going through. Last year my good friends brother, who has early onset Alzheimers for years and has not recognized any other than his wife for some time left his home in San Francisco and ended up in Oakland on public transit, clear across the bay. I can't even remember how the police found him. I would follow the advice of the police in what to do. When he came home they have had to get an actual tracking bracelet for him so this couldn't happen again. This is unbearable. I haven't even looked to see where you live and what the weather might be. I hope you will update us. I hope someone has a clue as to what can be done. You must be so frantic. Do you live in the same area? Can you post pictures. Can you and family get a chain of people to go everywhere in the neighborhood with a picture asking if anyone knows anything? I would also consider posting a reward.
I'm wondering if the AL facility has any compunction to help you. Also, let the media know...make it a news story so that the authorities are "shamed" into acting. You don't say what state or city she lives in, so maybe their police force and detectives are overwhelmed with cases in larger populations. Do you live in the same area as she? I pray she is found soon...!
Oh, Karen -- I don't have any advice, but I wanted to you send my deepest sympathies. It's terrible not knowing where she is. Hoping that they find her soon, and that you have a peaceful end to this story. All my best wishes, honey.
A few months back a man with early stage ALZ went missing in our area for several days from his favorite fishing spot, leaving his car and fishing gear behind. He was found over 60 miles away at a truck stop. Apparently he had gotten lost when leaving his fishing spot, reached a road, got a ride to a local convenience store, got another ride from there to the truck stop and spent a couple of days waiting in the restaurant for someone to pick him up. When the manager called the sheriff's department, he was identified immediately. Another man with dementia was found last year behind a store at a shopping center; people had looked in the center's parking lots and store fronts, but not the rear areas on the first couple of sweeps.
God bless and comfort you.
Also, if your sister was anywhere near hiking or climbing areas, there might be a SAR op that could help look for her.
Parks? forests? any of those in her area?
Where do you live? In a northern or southern state (your profile doesn't provide any information)? That would determine generally how long she could last outside.
If it hasn't already been done, get your friends and family to scout out local facilities and ask if you can post missing person posters on their bulletin boards. Contact the local papers and news channels and share the story, asking for people to watch out for her.
Does she use the Internet? Have e-mail? If so, have the police checked her activity to determine if she was corresponding with anyone, and/or planned to meet someone? What about mail? Do you or does she receive it at the AL, and is it delivered to her by a staff member who might remember what she may have received?
Phone records? Land line and cell phone records should be searched to determine with whom she might have been in touch.
Financial activity? That should be checked as well, to determine if she had contact with anyone who might have been a scammer, or what she may have purchased (bus ticket, or something to indicate if she had travel plans, perhaps to meet someone.)
Also, I don't know if ALs keep logs of residents' activity, or have CCTV monitors at exits. Those, especially the monitors, should be checked, for clothing (and photos for news reports), as well as to see if anyone met her outside the facility.
If you have Facebook then create a public post with your sisters picture & last known whereabouts and ask everyone to share it. Post it in every local group you can think of. My city has neighborhood watch Facebook groups, crime watch groups, etc so if your area has anything like that, post her picture there. Also ask the local police department to post it on their Facebook page. Send her photo to local media. We just had a missing man with domains syndrome and he was found thanks to Facebook. Good luck!