An 81-year-old Shrewsbury woman reported missing was found in a wooded area early Wednesday, located after a State Police helicopter picked up a signal from the tracking bracelet she wore as part of a program designed for people at risk of wandering. She was taken to a local hospital with minor injuries following the hours-long search that drew in local police, state troopers, drones, K-9 teams and air support.
According to Patch, Shrewsbury police received the missing-person report at about 7:11 p.m. Tuesday, while a separate account from Yahoo News puts the start of the search at around 7 p.m. that same evening. Either way, the response moved quickly: 11 Shrewsbury police officers, the department's drone unit, two Massachusetts State Police K-9 teams and officers from the State Police Specialized Emergency Response Team all joined the search for the woman.
Helicopter Homes in on the Signal
Accounts differ slightly on the exact timeline of how the helicopter found her. Patch's report states a State Police Air Wing helicopter arrived at about 12:15 a.m. and began searching after Shrewsbury police provided the aircraft with the woman's Project Lifesaver identification code, with the same outlet's report noting the helicopter detected a strong signal from her tracking bracelet shortly after 12:50 a.m. Yahoo News, meanwhile, reports that the technology led law enforcement to the wooded location where she was found shortly before 1 a.m. Whichever sequence is correct, the outcome was the same: officers located the woman in the woods, and she was transported to a local hospital for treatment of minor injuries, the same account notes.
The technology that made the difference belongs to Project Lifesaver, a program Shrewsbury police adopted in April after receiving grant funding for equipment and training, per the Patch report. The program provides tracking bracelets to people considered at high risk of wandering or becoming lost, equipping them with a small, personalized radio-frequency tracking device, according to a separate Patch report on the technology's debut. That report also states that trained officers can use the equipment to locate a missing enrolled person, often reducing search times from hours or days to just minutes, and that eight members of the Shrewsbury Police Department have completed certification as qualified operators of the system.
How the National Program Works
Project Lifesaver describes itself as the premier search-and-rescue program operated internationally by public-safety agencies, and says that since 1999 it has been the only nonprofit actively educating and equipping agencies to protect, search for and recover people who wander, according to the organization's own website. The nonprofit says its radio-frequency approach is far more reliable than GPS when pinpointing a missing individual in areas with dense materials, buildings, rough terrain or trees, per its frequently asked questions page. The program offers 30-day and 60-day transmitters that require daily battery checks, and agencies joining the program face an average startup cost of less than $6,000, excluding instructor travel expenses, since Project Lifesaver will not sell the equipment without the accompanying training and support.
South Hadley's local Project Lifesaver page states that recovery times for agencies using the program average 30 minutes, and that more than 4,400 rescues have been made possible by the technology to date. Shrewsbury's own equipment came by way of a $28,260 grant through the Byrne Justice Grant Program, according to Community Advocate, with a portion of that funding earmarked for the Safety Net tracking system meant to help locate individuals with Alzheimer's, dementia or other cognitive disabilities who may wander or become lost.
A Pattern Seen Elsewhere in Massachusetts
Shrewsbury's rescue echoes a similar case in Holyoke, where police located a missing older woman enrolled in Project Lifesaver with help from the Hampden County Sheriff's Department program, according to WWLP. In that case, tracking technology in the woman's bracelet combined with coordination between search teams and Holyoke police helped bring her home safely, with a concerned resident also aiding the search after the woman approached their home appearing lost and confused, the station reported.
For Shrewsbury families wondering whether the program could help a loved one, the police department's Special Services Division is the point of contact. Residents seeking information about enrolling a loved one may reach Lt. Michael Vitols at (508) 841-1407, according to Patch's reporting on the overnight search.
