Search continues for 75-year-old woman missing since Wednesday

Those searching for her have spit up into groups each of which is searching a designated area of the Mechels Bos woods with the assistance of tracker dogs. Officers from the Lanaken-Maasmechelen Local Police Service and from the Federal Police Service’s Missing Person’s Cell are involved in the search. 

On Thursday evening drones were deployed in an effort to find the missing pensioner. Emilia Chini went missing on Wednesday evening near to her home on the Lindelaan in the Eisden-Tuinwijk area of Maasmechelen. 

Meanwhile, family, friends and volunteers are searching around paths in the area in an effort to find Mrs Chini. 

Members of the pensioner’s family are starting to get to their wits’ end as almost two days since her disappearance there is still no sign of Mrs Chini.  

Her brothers Giovanni and Beppi told VRT News that "When she disappeared, she spoke to a woman from the area and asked her about a street that we lived in when we were children. She suffers from dementia and her condition varies from day to day. She will have got lost”.

However, Mrs Chini’s brothers find it strange that there have still not been any tips as to her whereabouts. "I don’t think that she is still roaming around somewhere. Someone must have spoken to her or stopped her. But where do we need to look?. Where are going to cycle around again in a while, but it is very difficult to keep our hopes up”. 

Emilia Chini is 1m 63 tall and of normal build. She has short gray hair and wear glasses. At the time of the disappearance, she was wearing blue jeans, a blue jumper and gray slippers. Mrs Chini suffers from dementia and can appear confused and disorientated.

Anyone able to provide information about her whereabouts should call the freephone number 0800 30 300.