Hundreds join search for elderly Coweta woman

COWETA COUNTY, Ga. — Hundreds of volunteers have come to Coweta County to help family members locate 78-year-old Eleanor Alexander, who wandered off from her Newnan home early Saturday morning.

"We were pretty surprised for a Monday, but it has been steady coming all day long," Alexander's daughter-in-law Becky Alexander told Channel 2's Rachel Stockman.

The family has set up a command post where hundreds of volunteers are meeting up. It's located at 529 Providence Church Road in Newnan. They have coordinators with maps, who are plotting out locations for search teams to check out.

One woman even traveled from Cedartown, with her trained K-9 unit to assist in the efforts.

"Any agency that has a missing or lost person we come out with our resources," said volunteer Tracy Sargent.

Police believe Alexander disappeared from her Newnan home at about 1 a.m. Saturday.

"I was with her 9 o'clock Friday night, and that is the last time I saw her," said Guy Alexander, the missing woman's son.

A passerby recalled seeing a woman in pajamas walking along Providence Church Road in Newnan.

"She has dementia and she is sick. She hasn't wandered off before," said Becky Alexander, Eleanor Alexander's daughter-in-law.

Over the weekend, at least five dozen Coweta County deputies used search dogs and a helicopter to search the nearby woods. On Sunday evening, Coweta Sheriff Mike Yeager scaled down the massive search, saying authorities had exhausted all leads.

With each passing hour, survival for Alexander, who needs medication daily becomes more difficult.

"You've got to keep that into consideration her age, her health, its been awful out here the last few days," Yeager told Channel 2's Stockman.

Family members said Alexander is very timid. They urge the public, who live nearby, to check their sheds and around the homes. Anyone with information on Eleanor Alexander's whereabouts is being asked to call the Coweta County Sheriff's Office at 770-253-1502.

WSBTV