DECATUR, GA—Eighty-year-old Rosa Mae Dawson, a diabetic with dementia who was missing for three weeks, was found dead on Wednesday, Dec. 4, DeKalb County Police said.
The DeKalb County Police wrote in a social media post: “….Please keep her family in your thoughts and prayers.”
Police said there were no signs of foul play. A man who was cleaning his yard behind his home spotted Dawson’s body along the woodline and contacted police. Her body was discovered about a mile and a half from where she lived, the family said.
Family members had told police that Dawson wandered away from her home on Nov. 13 around 6 a.m. and was last seen leaving the 2400 block of Jenay Court in Decatur. Dawson was wearing long-sleeved, pink pajamas and a pair of black shoes.
Ricky Dawson said that his aunt, who usually spent the day with his mother, found the door to the house open. There were no signs of her inside the house or outside, he said.
Police issued a Mattie’s Call alert on the day the family reported Dawson missing. Police reissued another alert to the public on Nov. 18, as relatives and friends passed out fliers and searched on their own as they grew more desperate to find her.
The DeKalb Medical Examiner’s Office will determine the cause of death, police said.