RCMP call off ground search for 73-year-old Martha Kelly of Perth-Andover

PERTH-ANDOVER, N.B. – The RCMP in northern New Brunswick have called off the ground search for a 73-year-old woman reported missing last week.

Martha Kelly of Perth-Andover was last seen Friday around 5 p.m. when she went for a walk.

Kelly, an avid walker, is considered in good physical shape, but she suffers from short-term memory loss as a result of a brain aneurysm she suffered in 2002.

Five search teams with 150 volunteers covered more than 250 hectares since the search started Saturday near Kelly’s apartment in Perth-Andover.

A Cormorant military helicopter was called in Sunday and a fixed-wing aircraft joined the search Monday.

As well, volunteers on ATVs searched along 800 kilometres of trails, woods roads and abandoned railway lines.