MISSING WOMAN FOUND ALIVE: Rescuers working to bring her out of forest and get her to hospital for evaluation

Published 1:40 pm Sunday, July 23, 2023

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NATCHEZ — Adams County Sheriff Travis Patten said missing Natchez woman Julia Kelly has been found in the Homochitto National Forest and is alive.

Robert Bradford, director of Adams County Emergency Management said the woman was down in a creek bed, about two or three miles into the national forest.

“We are working to get her out and to the hospital for evaluation right now. She is dehydrated and tired and couldn’t call out,” Bradford said.

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She apparently hunkered down near the creek and stayed in place overnight, Bradford said.

“They are trying to get her strapped in and bring her out right now,” he said.

Bradford thanked Adams County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue, Wildlife and Fisheries personnel, Sheriff’s deputies and other law enforcement officers, emergency management staff and the staff of AMR ambulance service for their efforts, which led to finding Kelly.

“With this heat and the terrain, most situations like this do not turn out well,” Bradford said. “We are so glad for the teamwork all of these rescuers showed, which allowed us to find her before it got too hot out here today.”

Kelly, 42, went missing at about 7 p.m. Saturday night. She was last seen near Garden City Road in the Homochitto National Forest in Adams County. She and another person were searching the creek bed for arrowheads when they were caught in an unexpected storm.

“One person made it back to the truck, but Kelly did not,” Patten said.

Patten and other search and rescue workers began looking for Kelly at about 11 p.m. and continued searching until approximately 2 a.m. The search resumed at 9 a.m. this morning.