Missing 71-year-old woman is found alive in woods — 130 miles away, Texas cops say

An abandoned vehicle led authorities to a missing woman found alive 130 miles from her home, Texas authorities say.

The Gonzales County Sheriff’s Office said deputies discovered the vehicle “off the roadway in some brush” around 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 30.

When deputies ran the license plate number, they learned the vehicle belonged to a 71-year-old woman reported missing from Harris County, a two-hour drive from Gonzales County, the sheriff’s office said in an Oct. 2 news release.

A search team began looking for the woman, and additional crews were called to help when it began getting dark, deputies said.

She was found “in a thick wooded area” just after 2 a.m., seven hours after the discovery of her vehicle, according to the sheriff’s office.

Authorities said the woman was “alert and speaking with rescuers.” She was taken to a hospital for evaluation, and her family was notified.

It’s unclear why the woman was in the woods, but the sheriff’s office said she drove herself to the area.

Gonzales County Sheriff Keith Schmidt called the 71-year-old a “tough lady,” KHOU reported.

“We could have easily not found her that night and she could have been out there till the next morning until we were walking the property, and if she would have walked what, you know, two miles off of this property, I never would have found her,” Schmidt told the outlet. “I mean, it was just, it was God’s will that we found her, in my opinion because of that, I don’t know what else you’d call it.”

This story was originally published October 3, 2024 at 10:46 AM with the headline "Missing 71-year-old woman is found alive in woods — 130 miles away, Texas cops say."