The Tribune

By FARRAH JOHNSON

fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

AN elderly woman who was reported missing by family this week was found dead yesterday.

Yesterday afternoon police said they were waiting on an official identification to confirm the woman's identity but said they suspect she is 70-year-old Icelyn Fowler of Lumumba Lane.

Fowler was last seen at her residence on Monday, police said in a report issued on Tuesday.

Yesterday police said the body of an elderly female they suspect to be the missing woman was discovered in a field on Rose Close off Hanna Road yesterday.

The Tribune reached out to Marcia Fowler, a daughter of the deceased, who told the paper her mother had been found dead, but declined to make any further comment.

Before the confirmation of her death, her other daughter, Letitia Fowler, had previously told the paper her mother had suffered from "dementia and severe depression".

Describing the moment she realised her mother was missing she said: "When I woke up at about 6am, I would've noticed that she was not on the other bed in the same room where I sleep, but I took for granted that she would've been out in the living room with my daughter because they're very close."

Ms Fowler said as she prepared to leave the house she realised her mother was not sitting on the couch like she usually does every morning.

She said this prompted her to wake her daughter to see if she knew where the elderly woman could be, but her daughter did not know either.

"I continued to get dressed and I went to the Elizabeth Estates Police Station - I would've gotten there around 8(am) - and I gave them a statement," she shared.

Ms Fowler said the police organised a search party and the group looked all night "into the early hours of the morning" with no luck.

"When I spoke to my daughter after I came from the police station just to see if there was any other information she could give me, that's when she told me she woke up between 3am and 4am and she found out the front door was open.

"And so I'm thinking mum had to have left around that time because that's around the time that someone said that they spotted her or a person fitting the description that we put out there," she shared.

Ms Fowler added none of her neighbours "saw anything" because around the time her mother left the house everyone "would've still been asleep."

Speaking on how the family was coping before confirmation of her mother's death, Ms Fowler said: "You don't know what to feel, you don't what to think and you try not to let your imagination run wild with you and get carried away and then become overwhelmed on speculation.

"And so I am one that my hope is in the Lord and he knows all things, he knows exactly where my mother is and he's my heavenly father.

"Whatever the report is, all is still well," she said.