LAUDERHILL, Fla. – A group of church members met on Sunday to search for a beloved grandmother who vanished on Thursday morning from Lauderhill.
Edna Lea Smith, 80, was an active member of the Lauderhill Seventh-day Adventist Church, at 4100 NW 11 Ct., in central Broward County.
“She likes to be out," said Patrina Wright, her daughter. "She is an outdoor person, so every opportunity that she gets she wants to be out.”
Smith lives with Alzheimer’s disease, a progressive condition that causes memory loss. Relatives said she was last seen at an apartment complex on Northwest 41s Street near Northwest 44th Avenue.
Rev. Garry Gordon said Smith, who is disciplined with her schedule, has vanished before, but never for this long.
“Most of the time she has ridden the bus on State Road Seventh and comes south,” Gordon said. “Oftentimes, she would come to the church.”
Smith was last seen wearing a black and white skirt, a black, purple and white top and a black hat. She is about 5 feet, 2 inches tall and weighs about 150 pounds.
Church members were distributing flyers asking the public to call the Broward Sheriff’s Office at 954-321-4268 or 954-764-4357.