After A 97 Year Old Woman Went Missing, Four Kids Knew That They Had To Act Fast

After a 97-year-old woman went missing, four kids knew that they had to act fast. As a helicopter circles overhead, Hope Claiborne and McKenna Rogers hear a grave announcement from a loudspeaker. Their 97-year-old neighbor, Glenetta Belford, is missing, and her safety is feared for on account of her dementia. So unable to stand by and do nothing, the girls rally their gang together and leap into action. In October 2019, Belford was living in a residential care center in Roseville, California, and like approximately 50 million other people across the globe, she had dementia, the conditions caused by changes in the brain that affect a person's memory, behavior, thinking, and ability to carry out daily tasks. There are more than 100 kinds of dementia, including the vascular type, which comes from small strokes and dementia caused by Parkinson's disease. However, the most common form is Alzheimer's disease, which accounts for up to 80% of all cases. Mascular dementia is the second most common and is caused by tiny bleeds and blood vessel blockages in the brain. In general, dementia can be defined as a loss of nerve cells, which leads to the shrinking of the brain. It's a progressive illness, meaning that symptoms get worse over time. However, the effects of dementia tend to differ from person to person and they depend on which part of the brain is damaged. Some of the more common symptoms of dementia include problems with concentrating, planning, visual perception, and day-to-day memories. Sufferers may also experience difficulties with language along with changes in mood. And one of the most distressing features of dementia for families is when a loved one goes wandering. According to Alzheimer's Association, 6 out of 10 people with dementia will wander at some point. This is because people with the disorder can become easily disoriented and may forget their name or address. So while they may set off with a clear purpose in mind, they can easily become confused. There are many reasons that people with dementia may wander. They may venture out if they feel agitated, restless, or fearful of something. Alternatively, they may simply be bored or they may embark on a previously familiar route that took them to work or the grocery store. While not harmful in itself, the tendency to wander can be particularly worrying for the families of dementia patients. Going walkabout can expose those who are already vulnerable to a host of added risks including unfamiliar places, busy roads, harmful weather, and uneven terrain. As a result, roaming can actually put the life of someone with dementia at risk. In 2018, the Queensland University of Technology in Australia released a study claiming that The research, called Dementia-Related Missing Person Reports in Australia, was led by Dr. Margie McAndrew from the Dementia Centre for Research Collaboration, Carers and Consumers – DCRC-CC. In the report, which was published in the Australasian Journal on Aging, McAndrew outlined some of the problems. She said, Characteristics of risky wandering include frequent and repetitive walking without resting, which can be very tiring. Also, walking without knowing where you are or how to get back home without help from another person. In other words, wayfinding problems. McAndrew continued, Wandering can result in potentially life-threatening outcomes such as malnutrition, increased risk of falls, injury, exhaustion, hypothermia, becoming lost, and death. Not all people with dementia who wander become lost, but they are much more likely to than their peers who do not have dementia. With that in mind, when Belford went missing from her care home in September 2019 in Roseville, California, cops wasted no time in looking for her. The elderly woman is known to hide, so to aid their search, Roseville Police Department reached out to their colleagues in Sacramento, who sent over their helicopters. Using the chopper, police made loudspeaker announcements above the neighborhood of Roseville, appealing to volunteers to help with the search for Belford. They were eager to locate the elderly lady before the night drew in, and by this point it was already around 4 p.m. The City of Roseville, California Police Department's Facebook page then issued an alert regarding the senior citizen's disappearance. It read, Please help us locate 97-year-old Glenetta Belford. She suffers from dementia and is mostly non-verbal. Recently, she has been known to hide or hunker down in a location. Furthermore, in October 2019, Roseville Police Department's Public Information Officer, Rob Becara, revealed the concern for Belford to the Washington Post. He said, Because she has dementia, there was an urgency to find her before she went off on a trail into the woods or ended up on a street with lots of traffic. So given the risks she faced, time was certainly of the essence in searching for Belford. But McKenna Rogers and Hope Claiborne, two children who were hanging out at a local park after school, heard the announcements and immediately understood the urgency of the situation. Claiborne and Rogers were eager to help look for Belford, so they picked up their bikes and collected reinforcements in the form of the former's brother, Kashton, and his buddy, Logan Hultman. The foursome then joined the dozens of locals who had already volunteered to look for their elderly neighbor. As part of their efforts, the four children cruised up and down the streets in their neighborhood looking for Belford. However, their mission was derailed when Claiborne's brother, Logan, went speeding down an uneven path on a hill. In October 2019, he told Fox 40 News, The second bump threw me in the air and I fell off my bike. The fall left Logan in need of some minor first aid. As a result, he added, We came all the way back and my brother patched me up. The group used this opportunity to grab some dinner and once Logan was all bandaged up, they set out once more in search for Belford. So that they knew exactly who they were looking for, Claiborne's dad, Daniel, sent a photo of Belford to her phone. However, he didn't think that the foursome were seriously going to find the elderly woman. He told the Washington Post, I sent them a picture of her and thought, okay, have fun. However, it seemed that Daniel was wrong to doubt the youngsters. He told the Washington Post in October 2019, They were genuinely determined that they were going to find her. The foursome scoured playgrounds and parking lots, rustled through bushes, and even had a scan of their elementary school, but they had no idea what they were about to find. By 6.30 p.m., dusk was upon them, and yet the four kids kept looking. That's when Hope Claiborne noticed something or, to be more precise, someone. The person was a little old lady in a red shirt and white pants, and the children were certain that it was Belford. Talking to the Washington Post, she recalled that she told the other kids, And Logan was in agreement that the gray-haired woman they'd spotted nearing a street corner just a few blocks from their homes was Belford. He told the newspaper, I said, hey guys, that has to be her. Elsewhere, Cashton recalled to Fox 40 News, She was right here, and she was walking, and she was talking to herself. The woman the kids had spotted was indeed Belford. It had been two hours since she'd gone missing, and she'd been heading in the direction of one of Roseville's busiest streets. As a result, the four youngsters were delighted that they'd found her before she'd come into harm's way. Claiborne told the Washington Post, I was so excited to find her. We all went over to her and asked, what are you doing? She didn't really understand us and told us to go away. But still, the kids weren't put off of their good deed. In fact, they kept Belford distracted while Claiborne dialed 911 to tell cops that the elderly woman had been found. Explaining how that phone call went down, Claiborne told Fox 40 News, I called 911 and I said that I'd found this missing woman. And soon, police were soon on the scene to take over from the kids. However, cops made sure that the four youngsters got all the credit they deserved for their part in locating Belford. Later, Officer Rob Beccara told the Washington Post, The dispatcher was a little surprised to hear a young voice on the line. However, he added that the four kids had saved the day. The cops said, What could have been a much larger crisis was diverted by these junior detectives who jumped into action. In October 2019, the City of Roseville, California Police Department also paid tribute to the youngsters. It posted a photo of them on Facebook alongside a few paragraphs explaining the search for Belford. It read, We'd like to give a little praise to our excellent community. Yesterday, we posted a notification about missing 97-year-old female in the Quail Glen Blue Oaks neighborhoods. The post continued, When our officers arrived on the street, they were overwhelmed by the number of residents out of their houses looking around the neighborhood. One of the groups that started a junior search party was this team pictured here in this photograph. As the tribute to the children continued, it revealed the foursome's commendable actions. The post read, As it turns out, they were the team to locate the missing 97-year-old. Our surprised dispatchers took the initial call from this team of junior detectives, which helped connect officers to the missing person. The police post then talked about how we could all learn a thing or two from the young detectives. It concluded, This is a great example of our exceptional community coming together to lend a helping hand. This proves a great point. Age is just a number, and anyone can help out in a time of need. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the heartwarming story of how the four youngsters found Belford proved to hit on social media. The post by the City of Roseville, California Police Department subsequently attracted almost 3,000 reactions and close to 250 comments, and many of the messages congratulated the kids on their noble efforts. One such message posted beneath the police Facebook update read, What a great story. Way to go junior detectives. It's amazing what can be accomplished when everybody just helps a little bit. Meanwhile, another person said, There is hope yet for the future. Beautiful children. Great job. However, the people who were no doubt most proud of the children were their parents. In October 2019, Alyssa Hultman, Logan's mom, told Good Morning America, I learned that he and the kiddos were out at the middle school looking. I'm really proud of him. I think it speaks to his character and the type of kid he is. In a separate interview with the Washington Post, Alyssa pointed out that kids taking an interest in their community seem to be a rarity these days. She said, People are amazed by what they did in a time when so many kids are inside on their phones. Children don't often play outside anymore. Claiborne's dad, Daniel, also gushed over his kids, calling them the real-life Goonies, a reference to the popular 1980s adventure film of the same name. He told Good Morning America in October 2019, When they came back home running in, so excited they found her. I got so emotional. But even in the face of such praise, the foursome didn't see what they'd done as being anything out of the ordinary. According to Fox 40 News, when Logan's mother asked why he and his friends had gone in search of Belford, He simply told her, Because somebody needed help, Mom. And when people need help, you go and you help them. That's what we do." Likewise, Cashton said his group had simply answered an appeal for help. He told the Washington Post, The four of us just decided that we could do it. However, McKenna Rogers had a more profound take on things. She said, We really wanted to find Belford and prove that kids can make just as big a difference as adults. No matter what the kids' motivation may have been, their efforts certainly impressed cop Rob Beccara. He told Good Morning America, I think this is a perfect example of age not being a factor. Kids taking it in their own hands to help a community member in need and doing a great job at helping safely return this missing person. What's more, the foursome's success in locating Belford meant that Beccara could see a bright future in law enforcement for all of them. He said, In 10 years, they should give us a call and we can talk about offering them jobs as police detectives. But for now, the youngsters will surely be happy in the knowledge that they helped return Belford safely to her family.