An 83-year-old south Jefferson County woman with dementia was found safe Monday evening, roughly two hours after deputies asked the public to help track down the white 2006 Subaru Forester she was last seen driving. Sandra DeJournette had been spotted heading south on Kipling Parkway around 5:15 p.m., prompting an urgent alert from local law enforcement asking anyone who saw her to call 911 immediately.
The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office posted the missing person notice Monday night, describing DeJournette's vehicle as bearing Colorado license plate 216NLC and noting her dementia diagnosis as a key detail for anyone who might encounter her. The sheriff's office followed up in a comment on the same post confirming that DeJournette had been found safe approximately two hours after the initial alert went out, closing out what could have become a much longer and more dangerous search.
This is the second such case in the county within days. On August 7, a missing 75-year-old woman with cognitive decline was found safe within hours after a Columbine West neighbor recognized her from a law enforcement post and called emergency dispatchers, as Hoodline previously reported. That case, too, ended with a quick recovery after a public alert reached the right person at the right time.
Why Speed Matters in Dementia-Related Disappearances
Cases like DeJournette's are treated as urgent for a reason grounded in medical research. The Alzheimer's Association reports that roughly six in ten people living with dementia will wander away from safety at least once during their condition, often more than once, triggered by disorientation, restlessness, or unfamiliar surroundings. Time is also critical: research published in medical literature found that 72% of missing people with dementia who are recovered alive are found within the first 24 hours, but survival odds drop to 51% by the second day and just 20% between the third and fifth days, due to risks from traffic, falls, dehydration, or exposure.
Colorado has a formal system built around exactly this kind of emergency. Established under Senate Bill 06-057 in 2006, the Colorado Missing Senior Citizen Alert Program lets local law enforcement partner with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to push notifications through local media and highway message signs once officers verify that a missing person aged 60 or older has a documented mental impairment and faces a credible safety threat.
An Aging County Faces a Growing Challenge
Jefferson County's demographics make these searches more likely to recur. U.S. Census Bureau data compiled by USAFacts shows about 109,000 county residents, or 18.8% of the population, were 65 or older in 2024, above the statewide average of 16.5%, with county planning forecasts projecting nearly a quarter of residents will be 65 or older by 2040. The trend mirrors statewide growth: a Common Sense Institute study found Colorado's senior population grew at the second-fastest rate in the country between 2010 and 2020 and is projected to reach 19% of the state's population by 2030.
DeJournette's disappearance also touches on a sensitive question that surfaced in public comments on the sheriff's office post: when someone with a cognitive impairment should stop driving. Research from the National Institutes of Health indicates only about 35% of people with diagnosable dementia stop driving shortly after symptoms begin, even though progressive decline eventually makes driving unsafe for everyone with the condition. It remains a difficult decision that families and medical providers navigate as the disease advances.
Local Dispatch and Support Systems Behind the Response
Missing person tips and emergency calls across the county flow through Jeffcom 911, a consolidated dispatch center covering 28 agencies across Jefferson and Clear Creek counties that fields more than 700,000 calls a year. That centralized system helps law enforcement move quickly once a report comes in, coordinating the kind of rapid alert that led to DeJournette's recovery Monday night.
The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office also maintains a Victim Services Unit offering 24/7 crisis intervention advocates trained to support families through traumatic emergencies, including missing person searches and elder welfare crises. For families facing the fear of a loved one with dementia going missing, that kind of support, paired with a fast public response, can make the difference between a frightening evening and a tragedy.
