Search-and-rescue teams are on Monday trying to find an 81-year-old Huntington Beach woman whose vehicle was discovered abandoned on an isolated road in the San Bernardino National Forest.
Willie Jim Norman was last heard from Aug. 9, and later in the day failed to show up for her regular noon workout at her local gym, according to the Huntington Beach Police Department.
Her 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee was found on a remote U.S. Forest Service road Sunday in the Lytle Creek area, prompting the search to begin five days after she was last seen.
Norman has dementia, according to both relatives and authorities.
“Other than that, she is a perfectly capable female and does regularly walk and regularly attend her local gym,” said San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department Cpl. Robert Whiteside.
Norman rarely deviates from her daily routine, which takes here within 2 miles of her home, police said. Neither her debit card nor her cellphone have been used.
Sworn sheriff’s deputies were Monday working alongside 20 search-and-rescue team members, in unified command with Huntington Beach police, Whiteside said.
All-terrain vehicles were searching for Norman on rough dirt roads, he said.
The search was taking place in the area roughly 3 miles east of Mount Baldy, near Stockton Flat, video from the scene showed.
Norman is described as African American, 5 feet tall and 145 pounds. Whiteside there was no description available of the clothing she was last seen wearing.
