PORT ANGELES — A disoriented 80-year-old Arizona woman was found unharmed at about 7 a.m. in the yard of a Four Seasons Ranch residence Wednesday about 12 hours after she was reported missing from a parked car about 3 miles away in the Olympic Medical Center parking lot.
Authorities said Jeanne Smithart apparently walked away from her vehicle between 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Tuesday and walked down nearby Olympic Discovery Trail west to the Morse Creek area outside the city limit while her son, Mark Smithart, was in the emergency room for treatment for a medical condition.
A Four Seasons Ranch resident called police to report a woman was in the yard, Clallam County Sheriff’s Sgt. John Keegan said Wednesday morning.
“According to the deputy, she appeared to be kind of hunkered down for warmth,” Keegan said.
“She was cold and a little distressed and did not know where she was.”
Temperatures hit a low of 50 degrees Tuesday night.
No phone, ID, cash
The 110-pound woman, who did not have a cellphone, money or identification, was wearing blue jeans, a shirt, shoes and a coat, authorities said.
The mother and son were camping at Heart O’ the Hills campground at Olympic National Park when they went to the hospital at about 7 p.m. Tuesday to get treatment for Mark Smithart.
Jeanne Smithart stayed in their car.
Mark Smithart went out to the vehicle about an hour to an hour-and-a-half later and found his mother gone, speculating that she may have wandered off to look for a bathroom and became disoriented, authorities said.
A police dog was used in the search, but the dog track “led us in two different directions,” Deputy Police Chief Brian Smith said.
Search-and-rescue efforts were being planned when the woman was found, after which mother and son were reunited.
Mark Smithart was admitted to Olympic Medical Center and was in satisfactory condition Wednesday, a hospital spokeswoman said.
________
Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
