Remains found of woman missing after 1st day at Arkansas assisted living center, cops say
UPDATE: A Bella Vista spokesperson told McClatchy News on Friday the remains were identified as Barbara Doyle’s.
ORIGINAL STORY: Human remains found in the Arkansas woods match the description of a 74-year-old who vanished the same day she entered an assisted living center, officials said.
Barbara Doyle had been at Brookfield Assisted Living and Memory Care four hours before she wandered off on Aug. 12, the Bella Vista Police Department said in a Facebook post. At the time of the disappearance, officers released a description of Doyle and issued a Silver Alert, which informs people about missing adults.
“Doyle has possible dementia and has been known to wander from home in the past, staying near major roadways,” police wrote in a Facebook post. “Her husband is the only relative in the area, and lives in a nearby neighborhood. He has told police she has not returned home.”
In the two weeks that followed, the police department worked with local search teams to comb the area, in Northwest Arkansas and near the Missouri border. Crews used dogs, boats, ATVs and other tools to help in the search that spanned over 1,500 acres, officials said.
“Our facility is greatly concerned for the safety of Mrs. Doyle and has been in active cooperation with the Bella Vista Police Department,” Brookfield Assisted Living said Aug. 14 in a Facebook post.
The search took a turn when officials said human remains were discovered on Wednesday near Arkansas Highway 279, about a half-mile from Brookfield Assisted Living.
“Our city is very hilly, very heavily wooded with a lot of ravines,” Cassi Lapp, a Bella Vista spokesperson, said in a phone interview. “And so the area that she was found was off a state highway down and in one of those wooded areas, so it’s not like it’s visible from the road.”
“The remains appear to be consistent with” Doyle’s description — “5 foot, 120 pounds and was last seen wearing black jeans and a grey T-shirt-like sweater with black glasses,” the city said in a news release. As of Thursday morning, Police Chief James Graves said he was confident that the remains were hers, according to Lapp.
Graves said “no foul play is suspected but the scene remains under investigation and will be processed to preserve all evidence so that nothing is missed in the event more information arises in the future.”
“It wasn’t by lack of search effort that she wasn’t found,” Lapp told McClatchy News. “It is ... a heavily wooded area that it very dense, so it’s possible that someone could have walked by and not seen something.”
Brookfield Assisted Living’s Bella Vista location didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for additional information on Thursday morning.
This story was originally published August 26, 2021 at 1:00 PM.
