Family of missing woman still holding out hope

Published 7:31 pm Tuesday, July 30, 2013

BELOIT — This week, one year after her disappearance, Adline George remains missing. Throughout the year the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department said leads have been scarce in the case of George, 90, who went missing while walking down her street on July 31, 2012. Her daughter Della and son Doug planted vibrant black-eyed Suzie’s, dalias and array of George’s favorite flowers in front of her house on Mother’s Day, because they believe one day she will be returning home.

“We wanted the house to have all her favorite flowers when she comes back home,” Della Trace, her daughter said. “Because I think she is still alive — I thought that then and I think that now.”

Following her disappearance, the Sheriff’s Department immediately responded and within the next four days conducted searches with volunteers on foot, a state helicopter, two K-9 units, and cadaver dogs.

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Authorities set up a mobile unit near her home as a base for volunteers and rescue units. No clues were found.Trace said her mother was strong willed and would state her mind, no matter what situation. George was known in her community for walking several miles each day — a reason authorities covered more than a 10-mile radius around her home with search parties following her disappearance.

“We still don’t believe there was any foul play, but the investigation is still open so we haven’t drawn any conclusions either,” Sgt. John Hatfield said. “At this point we have exhausted our efforts, so the only thing we can do is rely on the public to give us information.”

But several of her children feel differently.

“That’s what they say but I don’t believe it because everybody knows my mother,” Trace said. “I think there was foul play, I really do. I think somebody has my mom and they are keeping her somewhere that no one will find her.”

Trace’s sister Loretta agreed.

“I feel like someone picked her up and just took her. She wouldn’t walk in the woods because she was too scared,” George’s daughter Loretta Thomas said. “I feel like she is not dead, but I don’t know.”

Both Thomas and Trace say they wake up in the middle of the night, wondering and worrying about their mother. Their brother Doug, Trace said, has had two heart attacks since his mother’s disappearance.

“It is really hard,” Thomas said. “I go to bed some nights and wake up in the night wondering about my mom. I used to call her everyday and so I go to the phone and get ready to call her and then realize, ‘oh, she’s not there.’”

George is listed as 5-2, 120 pounds and was last seen wearing green sweatpants, house slippers and a light green shirt.

George’s husband discovered her missing on. July 31. He told authorities he went outside and she was on the sofa sleeping. He said he took no more than 30 minutes, went to feed the dogs outside and when he returned she was gone.

George’s family said it is normal for her to walk away from home, because she would walk about two miles each day from her home on Dallas County Road 865 to Alabama Highway 22 and then back.