Missing Woman With Dementia Found Thanks To Scent Preservation Kit

CITRUS COUNTY, Fla. (KDKA) — Authorities were able to locate a missing woman with dementia because she had previously made a scent preservation kit.

The Citrus County Sheriff’s Office says an elderly woman with dementia went missing from her Florida home for about two hours on Tuesday.

Two years ago, the woman had made a scent preservation kit, which works by wiping a sterile pad under the armpit and sealing the pad in a jar. The Sumter County Sheriff’s Office says the kit will hold a human scent for 7 years and DNA for 6 months.

After the K-9 got the missing woman’s scent from her kit, the woman was located in less than five minutes.

The Sumter County Sheriff’s Office says the kit is suggested for people with diminishing mental faculties or children, and it’s a better scent for K-9s to use as opposed to a shirt or pillow case, which may have been contaminated with other scents or odors.