A 77-year-old Plain Township woman with dementia has been found safe after she walked away from her home on foot Wednesday afternoon, capping an anxious search that mobilized deputies and hundreds of local social media users in a matter of hours.
Kay Sayers was last seen leaving a residence in the 4100 block of Orchard Dale Drive NW in Plain Township on the afternoon of August 19, according to a public safety advisory shared by the Stark County Sheriff's Office on Facebook. The advisory described Sayers as standing 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighing approximately 145 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes, and noted that her direction of travel and clothing were unknown at the time she disappeared. Deputies asked anyone with information on her location to call (330) 430-3800. By Wednesday afternoon, the sheriff's office confirmed Sayers had been located and was safe.
Local digital outlet Jordan Miller - News republished the sheriff's advisory the same day, and the post generated hundreds of shares among Stark County residents before Sayers was found, according to the dossier's Facebook citation. That kind of rapid community sharing has become a routine part of how Stark County residents respond when a vulnerable neighbor goes missing, especially in a township without its own municipal police department.
An Unincorporated Township Leaning on County Deputies
Plain Township is an unincorporated community of roughly 53,400 residents, making it the most populous township in Stark County, according to Census Reporter. Because it has no municipal force of its own, the township relies on the Stark County Sheriff's Office, led by Sheriff George T. Maier, to serve as its primary law enforcement agency across a county of more than 370,000 residents. The sheriff's office also runs a free mobile app called Stark Sheriff Ohio, which lets residents receive real-time public safety notifications and submit anonymous tips during active searches like the one for Sayers.
Sayers' case was one of several involving missing seniors in Stark County within days of each other. On August 18, a 77-year-old Canton man with dementia was located safely after going missing following a disoriented drive, a case Hoodline covered in a story about a golf outing gone wrong. That same week, Hoodline also reported on a 67-year-old Stark County woman who went missing while driving toward Knox County amid a reported episode of psychosis.
A Pattern of Walkaways in Plain Township
Sayers' disappearance echoes an earlier incident in the same township. In early August, deputies searched for a 70-year-old Plain Township woman who left her home on foot without a phone — her third walkaway alert since April, a pattern Hoodline detailed in its report on the woman's third walkaway alert. Repeated incidents like these have placed ongoing strain on township deputies tasked with responding to vulnerable adults who leave home unsupervised.
Wandering is a well-documented risk for people living with dementia. Six in 10 people with the disease will wander away from safety at least once during their illness, and many will do so repeatedly, according to the Alzheimer's Association. That statistic helps explain why Stark County has seen multiple similar searches in recent weeks alone.
How Ohio Activates Emergency Alerts
Under Ohio law, an Endangered Missing Adult Alert can be issued when a local law enforcement agency confirms that a person 65 or older, or someone with a mental impairment, is missing and their disappearance poses a credible threat of immediate danger, serious bodily harm, or death, according to policy guidance published by the Mount Healthy Police Department. Ohio coordinates these statewide alerts through its Bureau of Criminal Investigation. Separately, statewide procedures direct officers to issue broader public notifications and local media alerts even while the criteria for a full state alert are still being evaluated, according to policies published by the Ohio Department of Public Safety's Police Division.
The block where Sayers was last seen has drawn law enforcement attention before. The 4100 block of Orchard Dale Drive NW was the site of a July 2024 missing person investigation that later turned into a homicide inquiry, resulting in a conviction in November 2024, according to WKYC. That earlier case is unrelated to Sayers' disappearance but reflects the same residential stretch of Plain Township.
No further details about Sayers' condition, where she was found, or how deputies located her were included in the sheriff's office announcement.
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