IRON COUNTY, Utah, Oct. 30, 2019 (Gephardt Daily) — Official public search efforts for a missing Cedar City woman have been called off as of late Tuesday, and the mission is now a missing person investigation and scaled-back recovery operation.
More than 100 members of the public turned out Tuesday morning to help search for 71-year-old Carol Stratton, who has non-verbal dementia and was last seen Saturday afternoon.
“We are scaling back our recovery efforts which will continue for the next several days,” the Iron County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook update Tuesday night.
“We want to thank the members of the public, our Search and Rescue teams, and other Law Enforcement agencies which helped in these efforts over the past several days. We will be posting updates as we can. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Stratton family,” the update says.
While the extensive rescue/recovery effort has virtually ended after three days of searching by hundreds of volunteers, local authorities, K-9s, off-road vehicles and aircraft, officials plan to continue the investigation into this missing person case.
The Utah Department of Public Safety is expected to continue an aerial search on Wednesday.
Stratton is about 5 feet 2 inches tall and weighs 115 pounds. She has blue eyes and gray hair. She was last seen near 3700 West and 4000 North at 2 p.m. Saturday, an initial news release said.
The frigid temperatures have been a concern since Stratton went missing. She has been known to be an avid walker who can cover a few miles on her daily walks, and area residents have been urged to check around their homes and outbuildings in case she got lost and sought shelter from the cold.
Anyone who has any information that could help authorities with this case is asked to call the Iron County Sheriff’s Office at 435-867-7550.
Gephardt Daily will continue to provide updates on this story as more information becomes available.
