Police still searching for missing woman

By ERIC LINDBERG — June 30, 2009

Detectives are continuing to search for a missing 89-year-old woman who wandered away from her home in the 3300 block of Cliff Drive last weekend.

The woman, Metta Thomsen, suffers from Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, authorities said, and was last seen at approximately 4:30 p.m. on Saturday. She was wearing blue denim pants, a blue shirt, white tennis shoes and a tan coat.

Police described Thomsen as 5-foot-7, with a medium build and gray, collar-length hair. Police officers, search-and-rescue teams and police dogs searched throughout the weekend for the 89-year-old, but have failed to locate her.

“Due to Thomsen’s age, mental conditions and the possibility of Thomsen being exposed to nighttime temperatures, the police department considered her an at-risk missing person,” Sgt. Lorenzo Duarte said in a news release.

After searching the entire Mesa area, police officials requested that the County Sheriff’s Department issue a reverse 911 call. One person called in to report he had seen a woman matching the description near Roble Drive and Llano Avenue in the Hope Ranch area at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Authorities sent photos to local television stations and police search dogs arrived from Los Angeles at approximately 2 a.m. on Sunday. A search of Hope Ranch failed to turn up the missing woman, even after two dogs tracked her to an area on the west of Hope Ranch Lake.

The sheriff’s dive team scoured the lake as well, but did not recover any evidence. After searching exhaustively through the weekend, authorities called off the formal search at 5:40 p.m. on Sunday, Duarte said.

“Santa Barbara police detectives are still actively working the case,” he added. “Anyone with information on the possible whereabouts of Thomsen is asked to call the police department at 897-2335 and ask for the Crimes Against Persons section.”

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Be Proactive : 6/30/2009

Any updates on Metta? I just wanted to mention that families can be proactive in event that their loved one goes missing. One such service is called MissingPatient.com Alert and ID system. They provide a free service to register your loved ones. This information can be broadcast to their contacts via cell phone, fax, and email for free in order to organize a search. If their police department has a Silver Alert like program, this information can be plugged in. It can really save valuable time. More information is available from their website http://www.missingpatient.com

tholmgren

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Search and Rescue : 6/30/2009

Recently search and rescue was searching for a friend of mine who was later found safely but had been missed by search and rescue. My friend less than a mile away from where their search started. Not complaing, just questioning the effectiveness. It was really scary. Hopefully they find her safe and sound.

Mr Mesa J

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I'm an idoit.. : 7/1/2009

I saw a woman that sort of resembled this lady on Milpas street this morning she hit me up for spare change near Winchells, I gave her a buck..Not really sure..But I wasn't thinking about it at the time..

stupid man

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