It’s one of those calls no officer wants to receive, and no person wants to make.
Around 6:20 a.m. Monday, a call came in to the Putnam County Sheriff’s 911 Center about an elderly woman who was missing from her home on the 700 block of Lower Harmony Road.
Putnam County Sheriff’s Deputy Todd Hudspeth and K9 handler Cpl. Chris Donovan responded and arrived around 6:40 a.m.
The woman, 87-year-old Ruby Smith, suffered dementia and had apparently wandered out of the house she shared with her adult children sometime between 4 and 6 a.m., Hudspeth said.
“On the way there, I said a prayer, ‘I hope we can use every resource we have to help this family,’” Donovan said.
“When I first got there, I talked to Hudspeth and the family really quick because I didn’t want to waste too much time because in those circumstances, every second is precious,” he added, referring to the frigid temperatures that hovered in the low 20s that morning.
Within 30 minutes, K9 Officer Nix found Smith lying in a ditch. She was alive and taken to Putnam General Hospital; however, she died there a few minutes after 9 a.m.
When they began the search, Nix quickly picked up on what Donovan referred to as “a cold, or aged, track a little farther from the backyard.”
The residential property and the surrounding area are heavily wooded. Donovan was running behind Nix, who was on a leash, and Hudspeth, another deputy and a Putnam County firefighter, was with them. They continued to follow Nix as he followed the scent trail. Donovan said the trail went in a question mark-shaped path through a thick wooded area.
“When people, especially people with dementia, are lost, they take weird routes,” he explained. “We weren’t on a manicured trail; we’re going through vines, briars, weeds. At times (I thought) ‘there’s no way an 87-year-old person went through this,' but the closer we got, I knew we were getting close because Nix had his head up and was pulling with intensity.”
A minute or so later, Nix pulled them to the ditch. Knowing his job was successful and complete, K9 Nix became impatient for his “payment” or reward, so Donovan wasn’t able to check on the victim, but Hudspeth and the firefighter immediately went to her.
Hudspeth said for a few seconds, she didn’t respond to them, but then she began mumbling. He noted she was lying in a fetal position, wearing only a night gown, and her feet were bare.
“You always worry when you get a call like this,” Donovan said. “It’s horrible that people get dementia; you never know what they’re thinking. But the only thing we did was give her comfort for a few hours with her family.”
Smith was treated by emergency medical personnel at the scene and taken to the hospital by ambulance.
Putnam County Coroner Hollis Harrison said the hospital physician pronounced the death, but Harrison hadn’t yet determined the cause of death by Tuesday morning. Bernard’s Family Funeral Care is in charge of arrangements.