Orient woman with dementia found 300 miles away in Maryland after 24-hour search

A 79-year-old Orient woman with dementia was found safe nearly 300 miles away in Maryland after a frantic day-long search spanning three states, Southold Town police said Tuesday.

A missing person report was filed Saturday after the woman’s twin sister arrived at her Village Lane home and found she was not there. She had been expected to travel to Stony Brook but never arrived.

The sister notified Southold Town police, which used license plate reader data to determine that her twin had left the North Fork around 10:15 a.m. and was later spotted in New Jersey.

At one point, the missing woman — whose cellphone was powered off — eluded officers for several hours as she drove through Brooklyn, police said.

Investigators were eventually able to track her movements through an Apple Watch in her possession, coordinating with police departments across New Jersey, New York City and Maryland.

She was located near Silver Spring, Md. — just outside Washington, D.C. — by Maryland State Police and Montgomery County officers on Sunday morning, Southold officials said.

She was taken to a hospital for evaluation and later reunited with her sister, police said.