An 88-year-old woman who suffers from dementia remained missing Thursday morning despite a police search by land, water and air.
Police used a bloodhound and an all-terrain vehicle to search woods along the Bronx River Parkway in Eastchester on Wednesday for Catherine “Kay” Cotter, who walked out of a Garth Road apartment that she shares with her son and did not return Tuesday morning.
A helicopter also searched for Cotter as her family assisted at the police search command center on Garth Road. About 25 police officers from Eastchester, the Eastchester auxiliary police force and the county took part in the search.
“She is 88 years old, and she suffers from dementia,” Eastchester Police Chief Timothy Bonci said Wednesday. “It is getting to a critical point.”
Cotter was last seen by her family early Tuesday. Four motorists reported that they spotted her Tuesday morning walking along the Bronx River Parkway, Bonci said. One said she was headed south on the walking path along the parkway.
Police said she is known to walk the Garth Road area. She might have wandered into Crestwood in Yonkers, police said. Yonkers police also began searching for her in that area. Police also said she may have taken a Metro-North train from Scarsdale in either direction Tuesday morning.
Both on Wednesday night and again Thursday morning, police and volunteers handed out fliers with Cotter’s description at the Crestwood train station and at entrances to the nearby Bronx River walking path.
On Thursday morning, an officer was also handing out fliers to cars crossing under the Leewood Road underpass between Eastchester and Yonkers. The officer said there had been no recent signs of Cotter, despite a search that had extended to Manhattan.
Police are asking anyone who may have seen her to call the Eastchester Police Department at 914–961–3464.
