Police search for missing woman, Wichita Kansas

ALERT

The Wichita Eagle
BY DEB GRUVER

Wichita, Kansas, police are searching for an 89-year-old woman with dementia who has been missing since 8:30 a.m. today.

Virginia Judd is 5 feet 2 inches, about 90 pounds and has short white hair, Sgt. Steve Yarberry said. She was last seen wearing a purple jacket and pants, either a wind-type suit or a workout-type suit.

She is possibly not wearing shoes and had a small white fox terrier with black spots named Ruby with her. The dog also is missing.

Judd also walked away from her home in the 6000 block of West School on Friday, Yarberry said.

Search dogs were out looking for her, and Wichita Fire Department emergency workers used a boat to check a lake behind her house, where Judd lives with her daughter.

Rochelle Budd, who said she was the best friend of one of Judd's granddaughters, said Judd and her granddaughter were going to go get donuts earlier today. When the granddaughter looked, "her grandmother was already gone," Budd said.

Budd described Judd as "teensy-weensy" woman who is frail. She said her dementia had "gone to another level" recently.

Steve Hirsch, a neighbor who lives around the corner from Judd's home in Spinnacre Cove near Sedgwick County Park, volunteered to help look for Judd.

He said he'd been out running errands when he got home and noticed police in the area. He said he helped look in some ditches.

By 2 p.m., she was still missing.