Brenda Thompson’s husband was adamant that she could not drive.
So, when she disappeared Monday morning from a Kroger parking lot in their 2010 Lincoln MKZ, Newton County authorities figured she'd been kidnapped. After a Mattie's Call was issued and an area-wide search for the 61-year-old woman was launched, Thompson was later found miles away in downtown Atlanta at Grady Memorial Hospital.
On Tuesday, the Newton County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post that Thompson, who suffers from dementia, had not been kidnapped. She drove the Lincoln herself and didn’t stop until she wrecked the car in DeKalb County, the authorities said. She was then taken to Grady, where she was being treated Tuesday.
No foul play was involved, police said.
Thompson’s husband told police he had left his wife inside the car with the keys in the ignition when he went inside the Kroger store on Highway 20 South in Covington to pick up medicine shortly after 11 a.m. When he came out he saw his wife and the car were gone.
Authorities then began their search for the woman, who had just left a dialysis appointment and was using an oxygen tank. She was described as being in fragile condition. She crashed the car at about 3 p.m.
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