Overview
- The search, launched late Friday after Glendale police requested help, followed an Apple AirTag ping that placed the family SUV near Lone Mountain and Vistancia in north Peoria.
- Peoria’s Real-Time Crime Center, opened just over a year ago to give officers on-the-spot intelligence, confirmed the vehicle never left the area and narrowed the focus to a hard-to-reach desert stretch north of the canal.
- From the air, the AIR-1 helicopter found the SUV off North Montello Road below a retaining wall after a 15-foot embankment drop and guided ground crews in with a searchlight.
- Responders rescued the older woman, noted she was extremely disoriented and believed it was 1976, and took her to a nearby hospital, where officials reported minor injuries and no further updates.
- Police leaders said the case shows how consumer trackers that ping through nearby Apple devices, paired with real-time analytics and an aviation unit, can turn a likely days-long search into a timely rescue for people with dementia.