An 80-year-old Choctaw woman with onset dementia, who had been missing since Wednesday morning, has been found after a Silver Alert was issued. She was last seen around 10:30 a.m. in Choctaw.
Choctaw itself is a city of about 12,579 residents with a median age of 38.9, according to World Population Review.
Why Dementia-Related Disappearances Demand Urgency
Weber's case underscores a pattern well documented by medical researchers. Six in 10 people living with dementia will wander at least once during their illness, and many do so repeatedly, according to the Alzheimer's Association. That tendency makes the first day of a search especially critical.
Research published by Cleveland Clinic Health Essentials found that half of individuals who wander and aren't located within 24 hours suffer severe injury or death. Compounding the danger, a University of Florida study found fewer than 4 percent of memory-impaired adults who wander away from home manage to return on their own, according to UF Health.
How Oklahoma's Silver Alert System Works
Oklahoma's Silver Alert procedure activates when a missing person is 60 or older, their whereabouts are unknown, and they have dementia or another cognitive impairment that poses a credible threat to their safety, under Oklahoma Statutes Title 63, Section 1-1990.5, according to Justia Law.
Lawmakers passed legislation related to the Silver Alert program in April 2009, per the Oklahoma Senate.
Search Update
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol announced that the woman had been found.
