WAYNE CO.—A search for a missing woman ended tragically early this morning after responders, working the sub-freezing temps, located her body in a creek.
The woman, Georgina E. Vacio of Chicago, as it turns out, wasn’t elderly as was being initially reported to responders last night, but at age 49, she was in ill health. It’s our understanding that she had been attending New Life Word Church on Fairfield’s west side and had gone missing from the facility at some point on Friday, January 13, between 7 and 8 p.m. It’s unclear if she ‘wandered away,’ but sources tell us that the woman was suffering from some sort of illness, possibly cancer, and had also experienced dementia, and possibly was an Alzheimer’s patient.
Response crews were toned out last night from Geff, Fairfield city and Fairfield Rural Firefighters. Unfortunately, shortly before 2 a.m., her body was located in a creek that surrounds the church. Temperatures were in the low teens and there was a light breeze, so exposure was certainly a possibility in her death, but a coroner’s report is pending.
Mrs. Vacio’s husband thanked those working the scene, below of which is a photo, earlier in the search:
The scene on the west side of Fairfield, about 1 a.m. 01.14.12