Shores officers save life of John’s Island Alzheimer’s patient

A middle-of-the-night decision by two Indian River Shores Police Officers to go back to the shoreline and look again may have saved a missing John’s Island woman’s life. The Alzheimer’s patient had wandered away from her home on Coconut Palm Road around 11 p.m. last Saturday. Officers searched for her for hours without success.

They brought out a helicopter and police dogs. They scanned the shoreline. They went to a property nearby she was known to frequent. Then, thankfully, they scanned the shoreline again – this time from the vantage point of a backyard deck, shining their flashlights inland toward the water’s bank.

The woman, whose name is not being released, was standing waist deep in the canal hiding among the mangroves. It was almost 2 a.m. when police spotted her. She had been struggling to get out of the water, and when she heard the officers calling to her, she fell and went under.

Read more here.