News 12 at 11 o'clock, July 3, 2009

AUGUSTA, Ga.---Investigators and volunteers are looking by air and by foot for 85-year old Elizabeth Bert.

She walked away from her personal care home on Wrightsboro Road yesterday morning, and they worry the clock is ticking.

Investigators took to the skies to search miles, and miles of land near where 85-year old Elizabeth Bert was last seen.

She's diabetic and has Alzheimer's and her family is worried. "I know how she got once before when her sugar was low and she didn't have her insulin. She was kinda weak, disoriented, didn't know where she was, who I was," says her son Randy Williams.

Bert walked away from her personal care home Thursday morning around 6:30. Hours later she was spotted walking and resting in this neighborhood a few miles away. But that's where the trail ends and now the heat adds more worries.

"That's one of my main concerns about her being a diabetic out here in this heat. Cause like I said, the heat's not good for a healthy person," says Randy.

Volunteers from the Alzheimer's Association were also out searching for Bert.

"Over 67 percent with Alzheimer's disease will wander. Normally they're found within a mile radius of actually where they've left from," says volunteer Kathy Tuckey.

As her family searches, they're trying not to think about what the personal care home was doing when she walked out the front door.

"What were they doing for her to just walk away? Why wasn't the door locked? Right now that isn't an important issue to me. I'll deal with that after the fact. Right now I just wanna get my mama home," says Randy.

Even though it's a difficult search, with very little clues, everyone remains hopeful. "It's almost like looking for a needle in the haystack, um, but we hope we can find that needle," adds Kathy.

News 12 did speak with the owner of The House of Life personal care home. They say they are not sure how Bert was able to leave.

They say they do not keep the doors locked at all times, but they say usually a worker is watching at all times.

Bert was last seen on Clarkston Road in the Buckhead subdivision, that's off Bel Air Road. She was wearing a blue pant-suit and had on a brown straw hat.

If you have any information -- call the Richmond County Sheriff's Office at (706) 821-1080

The House of Life personal care home is owned and operated by the same woman News 12 uncovered was running an illegal hospice on Ware Road just this May.

According to the Augusta License and Inspections Department, that home was not licensed as a personal care home like it was supposed to be.

The same woman, Jennie Dukes, owns the home on Wrightsboro Road -- the one Bert walked out of.

Although she would not go on camera, Dukes said they are not hiding anything. She also refused to comment about the status of the home on Ware Road.