Update August 8, 1:30 p.m. — Virginia State Police said Tequilla Williams had been found safe and the senior alert was canceled. She was found sleeping on a handicap ramp behind a church in Hampton, police say. She got medical attention and is doing fine, police added.
ORIGINAL STORY:
Crews with Hampton Police, Fire & Rescue, and the Virginia Department of Emergency Management searched the Aberdeen area of Hampton Wednesday for any sign of 65-year-old Tequilla Williams.
Williams is considered endangered due to a medical condition. She was reported missing on August 4; she was last seen wearing a two-piece cream colored pajama set. Wednesday morning crews searched near Power Plant Parkway and West Queen Street.
Watch: VSP looking for woman reported missing out of Hampton, may be in danger
“Urban areas can be challenging because there are so many places to hide, so many places to be, so many places to walk past, go past, go into and not come out, so structures become an additional issue for us,” said Melissa Weeks with the Virginia Department of Emergency Management.
Her team of volunteers are aiding in the search - they're called visual human trackers. Weeks says with the impending storm, there's an urgency to find Williams.
“Sometimes the pressure is on to make those final pushes before the bad weather comes in, and then we have to make some difficult decisions about suspending a search, so eyes and ears from the community is what we are crying out for right now,” said Weeks.
Watch: New ‘CODI Alert,’ like other missing persons alerts, is voluntary
Cpl. Colgan Wilson with Hampton Police tells News 3 they've utilized drones, GPS location services and other resources in the multi-day search.
“The technology we use gives us real time data, so if we see a track being laid currently we know that it’s been completed, and when we pull camera footage we can mark date, time, and location based on that camera, so that can give us a direction of travel that we can focus our efforts in,” said Wilson.
Community members are asked to check their security cameras and video doorbells for any sign of Williams. If you have any information, call police.
