At 13.44hrs this very wet and cold winter afternoon, we were contacted by SARCALL and pager by GMP for the teams immediate assistance with a missing 61 years old female, in the Deane area of Bolton.

The call was answered by Call Out Contact Mike Marsh, who liaised with the GMP Missing Person Search Manager as to what the team was required to do.

By 14.07hrs a full team pager call out was made for members to assemble at our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ for 15.30hrs.

This missing woman was also the subject of our Incident 46 – 2014 of Tuesday 29th April 2014, and as she was missing from the same location, our search tasking and planning was almost exactly a repeat of what we had done in April this year.

Search taskings were made in the Deane area of Bolton, including Deane Golf Course, Haslam Park and the valley of Middle Brook.

Twenty seven Bolton MRT members responded, which also included our Mountain Rescue Trailing Search Dog Boris and his Handler Steve Nelson, our DVSD Search Dog Sasha and her Handler Dave Marsh.

All search operations were conducted in the dark, with torrential rain conditions all too prevalent, making this search quite difficult (and extremely wet) for our members taking part.

Given the proximity of the search areas to our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ, the control and co-ordination of the search aspect of this search operation was conducted from our Base / HQ, as opposed to the more usual use of our Incident Control Vehicle.

GMP search enquiries and patrols also took place in this search operation.

By 20.26hrs our last tasked search area was completed, and with no trace of the missing woman, our part in this search operation was concluded, with GMP enquiries continuing.

A full team pager stand down was made at 20.46hrs.
FOOTNOTE: At 15.18hrs on Wednesday 24th December 2014, we were informed that this missing woman had been located alive and well in the Chorley New Road area of Bolton, giving us, GMP and very importantly worried family members, closure on this incident.