RICHWOOD, W.Va. — It’s been more than a week since a woman suffering from dementia disappeared from her Nicholas County home, but local rescue teams aren’t giving up on finding her.
“We haven’t given up,” said Richwood VFD Chief Tommy Coleman. “State Police have been up there through the week and flew a drone. The night this happened with had three drones in the air. We’ve had a helicopter, search dogs, and we have two more search teams coming in that are going to work with us tomorrow.”
Mary Catherine Green, 62, went missing from her Richwood area home June 18. According to her husband she was standing in the yard, as she always did while he was fixing supper. He checked on her and things were fine so he returned to the house to finish cooking and when he came to call her in for dinner, she was gone. It was around 3:30 p.m.
Now more than a week later, search teams are doing a grid search and plan to use this weekend to scour every inch along the roadways around her home.
“We’re going to do a foot search of anywhere from five to 50 feet off the roads. We’re going to try and push it about two miles out from the home,” he explained.
Investigators admit it’s possible she somehow left the area, but doubt it. They say Green cannot drive and it’s unlikely she got into a car with somebody. Coleman said at this point they don’t have any idea where she went.
“We just don’t know,” he said. “We have not found a trace. Nothing.”
Initially the teams used vehicles, four-wheelers, and side-by-sides to search along the area’s roadways. Coleman said they pushed the search out about 10 miles initially. They found nothing. Later K-9’s on multiple occasions have been brought in. Search teams have tried to get an angle from the air with a helicopter initially and later drones with thermal imaging. Nothing has worked. This weekend they’ll try again to do a thorough foot search. It’s anticipated 150 volunteers will be part of the effort.
The rain is expected to arrive Friday night into Saturday and potentially complicate the search.
“Everybody I’ve talked to said they’re going to be there rain or shine,” he said.