89-year-old found in pond after vanishing from memory care facility, Georgia cops say
The search for a missing 89-year-old woman came to a tragic end, Georgia police said.
Patricia Miele’s body was found around 11 a.m. Monday, Nov. 11, three days after she vanished from an assisted living and memory care facility in Marietta, Police Chief David Beam said.
She was found floating in a pond near the Kennesaw Memorial Park cemetery, less than a half-mile from where she was last seen, police said in a news release.
“In Mrs. Miele, we saw our own mothers and grandmothers and we wanted nothing more than to find her safely and return her to you,” Beam said in a statement posted to the department’s Facebook page.
“While that wasn’t the outcome, know that our efforts were genuine, thorough, and led by a servant’s heart,” Beam said.
Miele was last seen at 11 p.m. on Nov. 8 at the Greenwood Assisted Living and Memory Care facility, police said in the release. She left at some point and was nowhere to be found, prompting a dayslong search.
Miele, who was new to the facility, had been showing “signs of recent confusion” and may have been disoriented when she disappeared, authorities said at the time.
Police also said she was hard of hearing.
The area where her body was found had been searched several times on foot, by air and with the help of a dive team, authorities said. The investigation is ongoing to “determine if anything criminal took place,” according to the police department
“Please keep Mrs. Miele’s family and friends in your prayers during this difficult time,” Beam said.
Marietta is about a 20-mile-drive northwest from downtown Atlanta.