Search for missing elderly woman from Benton County assisted living facility enters day 9

2 hours ago

Ashley Jones-Sykes,

BENTON COUNTY, Tenn. — Authorities have spent nine days searching for an elderly woman who went missing from a local assisted living facility in Benton County, and the search continued Thursday with crews moving to nearby lakes.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Search continues for missing Benton County elderly woman

Alma Fowler, 76, was last seen Wednesday, Feb. 11. The Benton County Sheriff’s Office and other Tennessee officials have been searching for her since her disappearance.

Benton County Sheriff Ken Christopher said crews have used sonar on ponds near the facility and have now brought in a rescue squad to drag the water.

“We’ve been looking for her, running down all aspects. We’ve already run sonar on this big pond behind me and other ponds up the road, but now we’re back out here with the rescue squad. We’ve got them back out here dragging the pond to make sure that her body might not be in there,” Christopher said.

Multiple departments across West Tennessee have aided in the search, using drones, helicopters, bloodhounds, cadaver dogs, and boats on nearby lakes. Authorities said they are considering many possibilities as the investigation continues.

“We’ve run down everything that we’ve been handed. Since we got this, we’ve had all agencies in West Tennessee that was available out here, and we was three days on the scene when we left, and since then we’ve just been back and forth and done a 24-hour patrol around the area, hoping Miss Fowler might pop up,” Christopher said.