Missing Elderly Woman Saved by Local 14-Year-Old Girl

When one son noticed his elderly mother missing from his home on Sunday morning, MSP troopers and deputies from the Alpena County Sheriff’s Office began to search for 83-year-old Bernadette Martin. Her family reported that she suffers from dementia, and they were concerned she wouldn’t be able to find her way home.

“The concern that we have is obviously saving lives and the longer a person is missing the more difficult it is for us to search for the individual,” says Sheriff Steven Kieliszewski.

After investigating the surrounding area for several hours, deputies requested the assistance of a search and rescue unit. They were able to track down evidence that the elderly woman had been sighted at the McDonald’s on US-23 S around 8:30 that morning for a cup of coffee, before leaving on foot. Units began searching that area, which was near the home she disappeared from. This attracted the attention of a mother daughter duo visiting the neighborhood where Bernadette disappeared.

“I had taken my daughter down there to go to a friend’s house, and she told us that her neighbor Bernadette was missing and it just threw something into my mind that maybe I should look for her and help out,” recalls Alpena resident Regina Wagner.

Regina and her daughter Kayla joined the search party, and began scouring the neighborhood. After hours of looking, it was actually 14-year-old Kayla who spotted the 83-year-old barely conscious and almost completely hidden in a marshy, reed–ridden area.

“She was submerged in water in the ditch. I went into the ditch up to my waist just to keep her head above the water so she wouldn’t go under any farther,” stated Regina. She and her daughter quickly notified law enforcement, which directed emergency medical workers to rescue Mrs. Martin from the water.

“She was treated for hypothermia. Body temperature down into the mid–eighties,” states Sheriff Kieliszewski.

Bernadette is currently receiving care at the MidMichigan Medical Center. After a scary night for family and friends and all people involved, Regina says it just raises her concerns for other seniors like Bernadette.

“It makes you worry! I mean it could have been my parents, you know anyone’s parents out in the community,” she says.

Sheriff Kieliszewski says there are ways to prepare so that families can protect their senior members from similar situations.

“Every day look at that individual and make sure you know what they’re wearing. With digital technology nowadays, digital cameras, take a picture of them, every day take a picture of what they’re wearing,” states Sheriff Kieliszewski.

Without the concerned citizens from the community out looking for Bernadette, law enforcement officials are not sure they would have found her in time to save her.

“In deepest gratitude of your outstanding performance out of duty helping locate a missing elderly person, such an effort is worthy of the highest esteem by the County of Alpena and the Alpena County Sheriff’s Office presented this 8^th day of August 2017.”