West Island family relieved to find missing 82-year-old woman with dementia

An 82-year-old woman with dementia who went missing on Wednesday was found safe.

The family of an 82-year-old woman with dementia who went missing on Wednesday was relieved that she was found.

Montreal police (SPVM) had sent out a news release saying that Marilyne Giles was last seen on Wednesday at around 4 p.m. in Pointe-Claire at the Plaza shopping centre.

“As soon as I got here, I was able to [feel] that relief and be happy because before that you don’t know what you are walking into,” said Giles’ daughter, Tasha Brooks, in a recent interview.

Brooks explained that police found her mother on the side of a highway near Saint-Joseph-du-Lac with a flat tire and no gas.

“We don’t know where she was headed to,” she said. “But now she is happy. She is smiling. Confused but we will take it. She is safe and warm.”

Giles spoke to her daughter and the two were planning on meeting about 10 minutes later at Brooks’ home.

“She was going to the pet store, and she just wanted my advice on what food to get and she was coming over,” Brooks told CJAD 800 Radio. “I went over to the Plaza at around 5:30, 6 o’clock to see where she was at that point because it had been a bit, and they said she left right away.”

Her daughter said that Giles was diagnosed with dementia in the fall, and that she is not supposed to leave the house without family.

When she was found on Montreal’s North Shore, police said she was confused but safe.

Giles lives in Dollard-des-Ormeaux and her sister lives in Hudson.

Police set up a command centre at the Plaza Pointe-Claire on Thursday.