When found, woman’s core temperature was 6 degrees below
normal
GILROY
For one family, having Thanksgiving dinner together required a two-hour search.
A woman who lives in Eagle Ridge housing development in west Gilroy woke up about 6:45 a.m. Wednesday morning to find her front door open and her 75-year-old mother missing. After an hour of searching around her property for her mother – who has Alzheimer’s disease – the woman called the police for help.
Eight officers came out and, using golf carts borrowed from staff at the nearby Eagle Ridge Golf Club, followed the elderly woman’s course. Gardeners working on a lawn pointed police to the golf course, where golfers said they saw her at the first tee, heading toward the hills to the east.
At the base of the hills by a fence, an officer found a white slip and a white slipper, both of which belonged to the woman. Splitting up, the officers and a few golfers canvassed the hills and, on the other side, found the elderly woman sitting on a rock at 10:24 a.m.
The woman, who was wearing only a dress and a shawl, had a body temperature of 92.7 degrees – 5.9 degrees below the typical, healthy body temperature, police said. Paramedics arrived on the scene and treated her for hypothermia, then transported her to a local hospital.
“A few hours from the time we found her, it would have been a different outcome,” Sgt. John Sheedy said.
Police estimated the woman had left the house some point during the middle of Wednesday night – which saw low temperatures in the 40s.
