The body of a 70-year-old woman who suffered from dementia and Alzheimer's disease was found late Tuesday afternoon in the desert near the end of East Speedway.
Authorities found the body of Paula B. Gniewek about 100 feet off a trail that leads into Saguaro National Park East, about a half-mile from where her car was parked.
No foul play was suspected in Gniewek's disappearance. She had been missing since Saturday and had not taken her medication, officials said.
Gniewek apparently died from exposure to heat and other elements while in the desert, said Sgt. Fabian Pacheco, a Tucson Police Department spokesman.
The Pima County Sheriff's Department, along with the National Park Service and Customs and Border Protection, helped in the search on the ground and from the air, according to Officer Chuck Rydzak, a police spokesman.
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Gniewek was last seen at about 9 a.m. Saturday when she left her home near East Broadway and Wilmot Road to go to a Walgreens at Broadway and Jessica Avenue, Pacheco said.
She only had a small amount of cash with her, he said.
Saturday evening, Pima County Sheriff's deputies came across Gniewek's abandoned vehicle and ran the license plate, but no attempt to locate order had been issued because her family didn't report her missing until Sunday, Rydzak said. On Tuesday, Tucson police learned that the sheriff's department ran the license plate. Officers went to the car's location and began the search, he said.
