CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) — A Chesapeake woman disappeared on her 82nd birthday, but she was found within minutes thanks to technology and a quick-thinking sheriff’s office — the rush against the clock coming on one of the coldest days of the season thus far.
David Hall told 10 On Your Side he was so relieved when he was reunited with his elderly mom with dementia in the Harris Teeter parking lot on Hanbury Road in Chesapeake. She had wandered off from the dentist Tuesday and he immediately thought the worst.
“She was across the street,” Hall said. “She had made it out of the this area where we were looking and in the neighborhood across the road, across Hanbury, so without their help, who knows what the outcome would have been as cold as it was.”
Hall was visiting the dentist with his two kids when his 82-year-dld mother, Janice Hall, who has dementia, wandered out of the waiting room. He started frantically searching the area, and even got help from nearby Harris Teeter employees like Michael Powell.
“I rushed out here, dropped everything I was doing,” Powell said.
Then David Hall remembered his mom was wearing her Project Lifesaver bracelet that can be tracked using special equipment.
“It’ll get stronger and we just adjust the equipment until we can literally walk right up to them,” said Senior Deputy Robert Purdue.
Purdue trains other deputies on how to use equipment for Project Lifesaver. They also have specialized training on how to approach seniors or kids in crisis. On Tuesday, Purdue worked with Deputy Rachel Conrad and others to help safely locate Janice Hall.
“Luckily, she was safe, she wasn’t injured, a little hypothermic, but we had medics on the way to her when they were reunited,” Purdue said. “But to see the look on his face when his mother was found safely there, you can’t put a price on that.”
Deputies work to form relationships with those in the program so they feel comfortable approaching them. Conrad said she was walking back to her car when she noticed Janice Hall across the street.
“I noticed right across the street there was a small older female that was all bundled up in her front yard,” Conrad said. “You hope that these families don’t have to use this program, but we always want to be prepared and ready at all times to be able to go out and help everybody.”
Project Lifesaver was founded in Chesapeake and has since been replicated all over the country.
Undersheriff David Rosado says they currently have 79 adults and children in the program in Chesapeake.
“The main thing when it comes to our clients is they’ll wander,” Rosado said. “My dad was part of the Project Lifesaver program. He passed away in March, and there were a couple of times where we had to go look for him and literally found him within 20 minutes.”
Janice was hypothermic when deputies found her. It was in the upper 30’s on Tuesday, but wind chill values made it feel even colder. Undersheriff Rosado says they can use their drones for wooded areas if needed, but every second counts.
“You won’t even notice, you’re home, you look around, you don’t know how long they were gone if they’re missing, so it’s it’s so important to have this program,” said Undersheriff Rosado. “Our goal is to bring people home. That’s why we have Project Lifesaver so we can bring them home.”
David says his father was a big advocate for the Project Lifesaver Program. He says he never knew it would end up saving his mom’s life one day.
“That’s where minutes or hours, I can’t say that enough,” Hall said. “We didn’t figure we’d ever need this, but when that time comes in your life and you need it, it’s here.”
Project Lifesaver is a non-profit that is fueled by donations from the community. If you’d like more information on how to sign up, call the Chesapeake Sheriff’s Office.
