After two days

Attentive nephew found Braunau woman with dementia

Daughter Cornelia Weber with her mother Johanna S. (66). The woman with severe dementia was absent for two days and is now being nursed back to health in hospital in Braunau.

(Bild: ZVG)

A 66-year-old woman with severe dementia had been missing for two days. Then she was discovered completely hypothermic and soaked on the banks of the Salzach in Überackern. At the last second: the mother of three would probably not have survived another night outdoors. She is now recovering in Braunau hospital.

It turned out well, (almost) nothing happened - on Thursday evening, the missing Johanna S. (66) from Braunau was found by a nephew on the banks of the Salzach near the Riviera landing stage in the municipality of Überackern. As reported, the woman with severe dementia had been missing since Wednesday morning.

Trail in the mud led to her
"I'm so glad that my cousin Manuel Schmitzberger and his partner Sabine Bubestinger had the right instinct," says Cornelia Weber, the daughter of the missing person who was found, delightedly: "He discovered wheel tracks in the mud near the Riviera, continued his search in the forest and fought his way through the undergrowth to the shore. He then found my mother there. She was completely dehydrated and had been totally soaked and hypothermic since a thunderstorm two days earlier. She probably wouldn't have survived another night in the open. Unfortunately, her dementia worsened massively as a result."

Probably wanted to escape the storm
Johanna S. probably wanted to cycle to Ranshofen as usual, but went in the opposite direction to Hochburg-Ach. Her daughter Cornelia suspects that she may have strayed from the cycle path during the storm and got deeper and deeper into the riparian forest in search of shelter.

Recovering in hospital
The mother of three was taken to hospital in Braunau after she was found. Daughter Cornelia says: "Police dogs had already picked up the scent, but then lost it after the officers changed shifts. Thank God my cousin didn't give up, but persisted. That was really great of him. A big thank you!"