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BY JOEL ELLIOTT
Staff Writer 07/23/2008

enlarge Staff photo by David Leaming

MISSING WOMAN: Waterville police and officers with the Maine Warden Service gather outside the Woodlands Assisted Living facility in Waterville on Tuesday to plan an extensive search for Rachel Nelson who was reported missing. A search plane, tracking dogs, and firefighters in a boat later found her body in the Kennebec River.

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Someone from the Woodlands Assisted Living facility on West River Road around 8:30 a.m. reported a woman missing, Waterville Police Deputy Chief Charles Rumsey said. He said the missing woman was Rachel Nelson, 82, a resident of the facility.

"We were hoping that we would have a successful outcome for the family, and we were sad that it didn't turn out that way," he said.

The last time anyone had seen Nelson was around 9:30 p.m. the previous night. Workers in the morning feared she had wandered off, police said.

She lived in a retirement apartment on the grounds of the Woodlands Assisted Living facility, according to its chief operating officer, Matthew Walters.

"When she was not available for a scheduled, routine service this morning, that's when our staff got busy looking for her within the building," Walters said Tuesday. "We are deeply saddened about what happened."

Walters said Woodlands has a dementia unit, but Nelson lived on a separate part of the compound that was not part of that, and had more freedom to move and come and go as she pleased.

Police coordinated with the Maine Warden Service, Waterville Fire Department and a canine unit to search for Nelson. They searched an area between Thomas College and Kennedy Memorial Drive and up the Kennebec River as far as Carter Memorial Drive. The Warden Service used a seaplane to search, and police officers took to the trails on mountain bikes.

Around 11:30 a.m., Rumsey announced that firefighters in a rescue boat had found a body in the Kennebec River about a mile south of the Waterville boat landing. Later in the day, he confirmed the woman's identity. Rumsey said police do not suspect foul play.

The woman's body went to the state medical examiner to determine cause of death.

Nelson was born in Maine, but lived in Arizona most of her life before moving back to the state. Her family lives in Fairfield, and she had lived at Woodlands for about a month, Rumsey said.

Joel Elliott -- 861-9252

jelliott@centralmaine.com

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