MACON, Ga. — Marie Johnson-McLean is an aunt, a grandmother, and a sister. As of Monday morning, she was also missing.
Johnson-McLean went missing over the weekend after being last seen at her house. Her family said because of her dementia. Someone always watched her. They said her leaving alone seemed out of character when they couldn't find her.
She was found Monday afternoon by the side of 2nd street, at the bottom of a brushed hill.
"She's safe, and she's sound, and we're glad. We're glad that she's okay, but the question still remains- how did she get down there if she wasn't there yesterday?" niece Lisa Lockwood said.
Her family said Johnson-McLean was afraid of the woods and couldn't walk more than 500 feet because she had a bad leg.
Over the weekend, they searched the areas by her house, including the street she was found on. A helicopter also went above the area she was found, and they didn't find her there either, her family said.
"There's no way she could've gotten down there by herself. And she was not down there yesterday. And she couldn't have survived. It was 91 degrees yesterday," niece Carlon Lester said.
The man who found her, Leroy Cannada, said he'd known Johnson-McLean since he was a little boy.
He was riding his bike around the street, hoping to find her, when he saw a pocketbook and a body in the brush.
"And I called her Marie McLean. She recognized me- I said, 'You, you all right?' She wanted to get up. 'Stay right there,' I said. 'We got somebody coming to get you,'" Cannada said.
The family is searching for more answers as they're trying to find out what happened to her and how she got down there.
They'll be reviewing footage from security cameras in the area because they don't believe she walked down there alone.