Jewellery saves Tauranga elderly woman from night in 'gnarly' dense bush

She was tracked to dense bush near Yatton Park. Image/Google Maps

A pendant might have saved a 79-year-old woman from spending a cold night in dense bush yesterday.

Police were notified just after 5pm that the woman, who suffers from dementia, had wandered away from her home.

She was wearing a Wander Search pendant supplied by Tauranga Land Search and Rescue after she went missing previously.

Searchers were able to pick up a signal from the pendant and quickly narrow down the search area to a block of bush at the east end of Yatton Park.

The woman was unable to reply to the searchers' voice appeals and it was some time before she was located in the dense bush.

Senior Sergeant Craig Madden said it appeared the woman had gone as far as she could in the bush, then lay down, which is characteristic of a person suffering from dementia.

"Without the Wander Search pendant, we would not have found the missing woman tonight.

"She was in a very gnarly piece of bush and it was only because of the pendant that we were able to narrow down the search area.

"I'm confident that without the pendant she would've spent a very uncomfortable night in the bush and I wouldn't like to say what the outcome of that could've been."

Email taurangawandersearch@gmail.com for more information about Wander Search pendants.