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ABBEVILLE, S.C. (BFMG) — Family members are pleading for help to find Annie Belle Tisdale, an elderly South Carolina woman with dementia who was last seen driving in northeast Georgia after leaving her home in Abbeville.
Tisdale’s son, Jarrett, shared a detailed timeline of her movements beginning Saturday evening, when she left home around 5 p.m. to pick up a fish dinner from a restaurant in Abbeville. She returned about 5:30 p.m. with coleslaw for her husband, telling him her own meal was not ready, and left again.
Jarrett is asking volunteers to help search the area and keep an eye out for his mother’s truck, which he believes is critical to finding her. He says Lavonia and areas south of the city have already been cleared by law enforcement, and there is no indication she re-entered the city after the Sunday morning camera hit.
“I want this nightmare to be over for me and my family,” he wrote, urging anyone with leads, tips or information to come forward and assist in the search to bring Tisdale home.
TIMELINE OF TRAVEL
That is the last confirmed sighting of her and her vehicle.
Her family says there was no indication from the footage that anyone else was in the truck or driving it. Tisdale’s husband reported her missing Sunday, and she was officially listed as a missing person that evening after being gone more than 24 hours.
Jarrett said his mother is believed to be in Stage 3 or 4 dementia, or mild to moderate impairment, though she has not been formally staged by a medical professional. The family says she left home with about $60 in cash and her cellphone. The phone last pinged in Abbeville on Saturday night and has either been turned off or died since then, according to the family.
Tisdale is believed to be driving a truck with an estimated fuel range of 350 to 400 miles on a full tank, and her husband believes the tank was nearly full when she left.
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Jarrett said the family’s “working theory” is that Tisdale went back to the restaurant to pick up her food, stopped for a lottery ticket and then made a wrong turn leaving the gas station that sent her toward Greenwood. From there, they believe she became increasingly disoriented, driving through familiar areas like McCormick and Calhoun Falls but failing to turn toward home, instead continuing farther away into Georgia.
The family says they have no relatives or known connections in Lavonia and no clear explanation for why she would have driven there. They believe that after she left Lavonia headed north on Highway 17, she may have pulled off the main road to rest or possibly ran out of gas, and they hope she stayed with the vehicle.
They also considered three possible directions she could have taken leaving Lavonia: south on Interstate 85 toward Atlanta, north on Interstate 85 back toward South Carolina, or straight on Georgia 17 toward Toccoa. Jarrett said flock cameras on I-85 north and south did not capture her vehicle within about 20 miles of Lavonia, leading the family to believe she likely continued on Highway 17.
Search efforts are now focused on a roughly 20-mile radius from Lavonia in three main directions, including:
- Northbound I-85 and all exits and roads back toward Lavonia.
- Southbound I-85 and all exits and roads back toward Lavonia.
- Northbound Georgia 17 toward the Toccoa area and all roads, streets and side routes leading back to Lavonia.
Jarrett is asking volunteers to help search the area and keep an eye out for his mother’s truck, which he believes is critical to finding her. He says Lavonia and areas south of the city have already been cleared by law enforcement, and there is no indication she re-entered the city after the Sunday morning camera hit.
“I want this nightmare to be over for me and my family,” he wrote, urging anyone with leads, tips or information to come forward and assist in the search to bring Tisdale home.
