At 09:35 our Team Leader was contacted by GMP to provide the team’s assistance with the scaling up of a search for a missing 73 year old Leigh woman in the Plank Lane area of Leigh.

The woman had gone missing from a care home in the Plank Lane area of Leigh, with her disappearance now giving police cause for concern.

Team members preparing to depart the Control location to start searching

Steve Fletcher, John Carlin & Garry Rhodes in Control. The age of the Controllers has never been so young in the Team’s history

In total, 32 Bolton team members including our search dog Chi, assisted by 8 our of our colleagues from Rossendale & Pendle MRT, joined together with divisional police resources including a search dog unit, and India 99, the GMP Helicopter, in a search of all the open areas within a one mile radius of the care home, taking in Pennington Flash Country Park, Plank Lane, and Westleigh Brook.

General milling and replenishing supplies whilst on a break

As the day drew on, family members of the missing woman joined in the search effort an led a missing person poster campaign throughout the area.

By late evening the intensive all-day long search of open land areas was called off, with exhausted team members returning very late evening to their homes.

Team Members enjoying a Chinese meal, after all the admin tasks have been completed after the search, the time now is 23:20 and it’s been a long day for the Team.

Police enquiries are continuing regards the search for this missing lady, alongside the efforts of the woman’s immediate family.

Update: The missing woman was located by Police on Monday afternoon, in a location outside of the team’s search areas.