On Thursday morning, a group of volunteers led by the person's son increased the search parameters in pursuit of finding the 85-year-old, who has been missing since Monday.
Updated on 13 January: The missing 85-year-old has been found lifeless, near Bourglinster.
Prior search efforts for the senior resident, who is in need of medical assistance, have remained futile. A group of volunteers has therefore decided to widen the search in hope of locating the missing person.
Volunteers assembled at the Junglinster municipal administration at 10.30am on Thursday, with individual search areas assigned to people based on their availability and physical fitness. The goal was to cover the remaining paths that the person might have taken before going missing.
While the police were not directly involved in this family-operated search party, volunteers will be supported in their efforts by forestry workers.
Any latecomers and willing volunteers in the area are encouraged to search the walking trails around Junglinster and Roodt-Sur-Syre, as the person is described as a keen capable walker — which is why search efforts have focused on forest paths.
Around 60 people assembled at the municipal town hall on Thursday morning, including friends, locals, nursing home staff and many members of Luxembourg's English-speaking community. Small groups of searchers have been covering the municipality throughout the day in search of the missing woman.
Disappearance
The 85-year-old has not been seen since 3.15pm Monday 8 January, when she left her room at the Junglinster retirement home where she has spent the last 18 months.
When she failed to return 12 hours later, staff alerted police, who launched a search operation involving a helicopter and sniffer dogs in the early hours of Tuesday morning. This search action was unsuccessful.
Family and friends say it was normal for her to leave the nursing home for longer periods of time in the evenings. Agile and in good mental health, the pensioner liked to go for walks, or her friends would collect her and return her to the home later in the evenings, after Scottish dance lessons, for example.
Police have searched hospitals and hotels for the missing woman without success. Her son has distributed flyers in the neighbourhood and shared his mother's picture with local bus drivers in case she opted to take a bus towards Diekirch, the Moselle region of the capital.
