MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – An 80-year-old woman from Lauderdale Lakes who had been missing since Thursday has been located at Kendall Regional Medical Center, her family told Local 10 News on Monday.
On Sunday, a group of Edna Lea Smith’s friends from church searched for the beloved grandmother along with her relatives.
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Smith was an active member of the Lauderhill Seventh-day Adventist Church, at 4100 NW 11 Ct., in central Broward County.
“She likes to be out," said Patrina Wright, her daughter. "She is an outdoor person, so every opportunity that she gets she wants to be out.”
Smith lives with Alzheimer’s disease. Relatives said she was last seen at an apartment complex on Northwest 41s Street near Northwest 44th Avenue.
Rev. Garry Gordon said Smith, who is disciplined with her schedule, has vanished before, but never for this long.
“Most of the time she has ridden the bus on State Road Seventh and comes south,” Gordon said. “Oftentimes, she would come to the church.”
Relatives said Smith wasn’t injured, but has been weak from not taking her regular medications.
They said an employee at the hospital recognized Smith from a Local 10 News broadcast, leading to her family finding out her whereabouts.
It’s unclear where she had been for the past several days.