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MCCALL CREEK — The search for a missing Pike County woman continues in Franklin County. Officials, law enforcement and volunteers from several counties have combed over a significant area in Franklin County and parts of Lincoln and Jefferson County.

Franklin County Emergency Management Agency Mark Thornton said they still have people looking for Lottie Elaine Myers, a resident of Summit, who was reported missing after being last seen Monday, Oct. 28, around 1:45 p.m. on Willis Cotton Road. She was driving south in her 2015 silver Jeep Cherokee.

“At this point we don’t know which direction to go. We aren’t going to give up,” Thornton said. “We are going to keep looking and riding and hoping someone may have her on their trail camera. At this point though, it is like she disappeared.”

The vehicle was found Tuesday, Oct. 29, on McCall Creek Road close to Wright’s Bethesda Methodist Church, locked and with no signs of foul play, according to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office.

Myers is described as a white female, 5-feet 5-inches tall and 170 lbs., last seen wearing faded denim capris and a gray t-shirt. She is said to suffer from dementia. Witnesses who saw Myers since Oct. 28 reported she said she was “fine” and did not need help, and was looking for her husband.

Thornton said they are hoping she might appear on security cameras outside of homes or trail cameras in the woods. If seen, please call 9-1-1; Pike County Central Dispatch at 601-684-5142; or the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office at 601-384-2323.

Exhausted efforts

Thornton said teams of dog handlers met Tuesday and discussed the case. They do not have a clue where Myers might have gone so the dog handlers have stopped searching until new evidence is found. He added people are still driving the roads but boots on the ground searches are not being carried out right now.

Experts in searching for missing people with Alzheimer’s, which Myers is believed to have, has helped the group narrow down their search radius in Lincoln and Franklin Counties. Thornton said the radius has covered 17 miles to the north of where her car was found, 10 miles to the east, eight miles to the west and five miles to the south.

He added they have used dogs, drones, helicopters and airplanes to help search those areas.

“We are going to continue to ride and look and hopefully something will turn up,” Thornton said. “I hope for the best but at this point it is hard to tell.”

Myers’ family have told searchers she could walk as much as five miles in a day and had recently completed a 5k walk. Other than Alzheimer’s, she was in good health. Thornton said if Myers had walked five miles from her car she would have ended up in Lincoln County which is why crews have looked from MS-550 to Caseyville Road to south of the county line into Franklin County. Searchers have also walked Quentin Road NE to Caseyville Road NW.

The search is one of a few Thornton has been involved with where they did not find something in a week.

“I feel for the family. We would love to find some sort of closure for them,” Thornton said.

Help has come from sheriff offices in Franklin, Amite, Lincoln, Pike, Lawrence, Adams and Jefferson Counties.  Dog teams from Madison and Rankin County and the Mississippi Gulf Coast have helped in the effort. Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, United States Forest Service and Homeland Security employees have also helped in the search.

Thornton said Buddy Godbold has helped spread the word and inform people about the case all across Southwest Mississippi. Wright’s Church allowed the EMA directors to use their pavilion for Incident Command.

“They have all tried their best,” Thornton said. “She has to be somewhere.”

This article originally published at www.dailyleader.com.