Missing women safe after 24-hour road trip

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http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/12928564.htm

Missing women safe after 24-hour road trip

By Tim Sturrock

TELEGRAPH STAFF WRITER

It took 24 hours and detours to Birmingham, Ala., Atlanta and Macon before 72-year-old Alice Atwater found her way back home to Upson County after a trip to church.

"We tried to find our way home and the more we tried the farther we went," she said. "I wasn't scared. We just locked the car doors and just rolled."

Alice Atwater and her friends, Florence King, 86, and Ruthelle Outler, 84, were reported missing after they were last seen leaving Mount Moriah Baptist Church in Griffin at 6:30 p.m. Sunday.

The trio of women went to the Griffin church more than 20 miles away from their homes to hear a particular preacher. Shortly before 8 p.m. Monday, they returned to Thomaston.

Their disappearance caused friends, family and law enforcement to search the area as media outlets referred people with information to the Griffin Police Department and Upson County Sheriff's Office.

All that was news to Atwater when she was pulled over by a Thomaston police officer Monday evening, she said.

"He said, 'Did you know they have a APB on you?' and I said 'no,' " she said.

Atwater said the women stopped for gas and food, and she couldn't explain why she didn't call her family to tell them where she was. Atwater was cheerful Monday night and laughed loudly in an interview. She said she was tired after driving for more than 24 hours without sleep.
Families of the women were relieved.

Alice Atwater's daughter, Suzette Atwater, said she and others spent all day Monday searching for the women, putting up fliers and asking strangers if they saw the three ladies.

"Once it started getting dark again, I really started getting worried then," she said.

Suzette Atwater said she was upset her mother did not call but relieved that she was safe.

She said she worried that the women had been robbed or had crashed on the side of the road.

Atwater's niece, Sonja Skelton, said, "I was trying to pray and say 'Lord God Jesus, I know she is going to be all right,' " she said. "I am so excited I can't even think straight."

Eloise Raines, Outler's daughter, said she plans to sit down with all of the women to discuss exactly what happened.

"I couldn't understand why all three of them did not have the presence of mind to call," she said.

But Raines had a sense of humor about the situation.

"It wasn't funny at first. But in a way it is humorous and in a way it's not because I think we all aged five to 10 years in 24 hours," she said.

Alice Atwater said it felt good to see all of her friends, family and neighbors after a long trip.

"I told them I didn't know they loved me so much," she said.

From now on she won't drive out of Thomaston, she said. For the moment that won't be an option.

"I'm so tired I don't want to drive for two, three months," she said.