NC missing persons expert shares tips on how to keep elderly relatives safe in wake of Nancy Guthrie disappearance

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — As the search for Nancy Guthrie, mother of NBC’s Today Show co-host Savannah Guthrie, enters its 2nd week, it has put a national spotlight on incidents of missing elderly people.

“There are some definitive red flags. such as them leaving without any type of tracking devices, them leaving without medicine that is necessary for continued health and living.”

Those are just some of the concerns Morrissa Ahl-Moyer, director of the North Carolina Center for Missing Persons, said she has about Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance.

While authorities continue their search, Ahl-Moyer spoke about the search for a missing elderly person that happened much closer to home, in New Hanover County.

The Walmart in Monkey Junction was the last place 90-year-old Phillis Millette was seen on February 6th.

After an extensive search by Honey, a K-9 unit with the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office, she was found more than a mile away from the store between two vehicles.

“The quicker that they were able to a) get that area quarantined, b) get a K-9 in there to start working that trail.”

Ahl-Moyer said quick response and use of resources are the key to finding a missing elderly person.

“People who have dementia or alzheimers, they wander a lot and they are quick. They’re a lot quicker than what people think. And generally, most of them are recovered, 75% of them are recovered within 2.4 miles from where they went missing from. But time is of the essence, the quicker we can get resources out there, the quicker we can locate them.”

She says there are also steps family members can take to protect their elderly relatives, without taking away from their independence.

“There are smart watches that provide location tracking, there are Bluetooth tiles, there are even in-soles that exist that have tracking in them as well. And then car, car keys. If you could put a Bluetooth tag of some sort on a car key. If they shouldn’t be driving, take the battery out of the car. Take the car key off the key ring.”

Additionally, here in North Carolina and throughout the US, Amber Alerts are well known, used when a person 17 and under goes missing.

But there is also an alert for missing adults between the ages of 18 and 64.

“The Ashanti Alert was a federal program that was instituted in 2018, In 2017, Ashanti Billie was abducted from her residence in Virginia. She was taken to Charlotte where she was murdered and the family noticed then that there was not a really good way for agencies and states to talk to each other when it comes to adults who are kidnapped.”

And if someone is believed to have dementia or alzheimer’s and is 65 or older goes missing, a silver alert will be sent out instead.

AHL-Moyer added that it is a common misconception that you have to wait 24 hours before reporting someone missing.

If you do believe someone is missing, report it as soon as possible.