"Happy Ending" To Missing Woman
Search in Seymore Community

by: Bobby McDonald

 

It was a "happy ending" for family members and local Law Enforcement officers and searchers, about 9:30 a.m., Wednesday morning, when they were able to contact 85 year old Lola Pearl Gammill Andre, by cell phone. She advised local rescuers that she was "near a creek and facing the sun!" Through the contact, rescuers were able to locate her, after she spent the night in the woods near her home, in the Seymore Community.

"We tried to get her to go to the hospital, but she said she was O.K. and refused to go, when she was reunited with her family," expressed Sheriff Butch Adams.

Andre, a "lifelong" resident of the area, had left her home about 8:00 p.m., Tuesday night, walking her dogs, and did not return. Suffering from dementia, she apparently wandered into the vast wooded area, locally known as "Sartin Bottom" and became lost. Family members contacted local law enforcement officers and a search continued throughout the night and early morning, to locate the missing woman.

"This is the way we like to see searches end!" expressed Sheriff Adams. "And, it also notes how important it is for the elderly to have cell phones that they take with them! As most people from the Seymore Community know, the terrain she was in is vastly wooded, rough country, on the banks of Lake Fork, with deep creeks and ravines, that was very, very difficult to search, especially in the dark. Her cell phone possibly saved her life!"

"We want to thank everyone that helped in the search and are just so thankful that everything happened as it did!" added Adams.

 

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