Search continues in Las Vegas for 73-year-old woman with dementia

A 73-year-old woman who vanished Monday in downtown Las Vegas still hasn’t been found, leaving her loved ones frantically searching for answers.

Judith Schnepf, who suffers from dementia, was last seen in the area of Carson and Fourth streets on Monday at 9:30 a.m. Her daughter, Kiayah Water, said Schnepf walked away from The D Las Vegas hotel where they were staying, 301 Fremont St.

“My mom woke up first and she wanted to smoke a cigarette. It’s a non-smoking room, the door was just two doors away from the elevator, so I propped open the door for her,” Water said. “After a few minutes I asked my sons, ‘Where’s grandma?’ We ran out to the hall to look for her and she was gone.”

At first the family expected Schnepf would be found quickly, but Water and Schnepf’s sister, Melanie Ekizian, are now deeply worried.

“I just want to have my family together,” Water said. “… I’ve lost my mom, and I’m really getting hopeless.”

Schnepf has walked away before. Once when she disappeared from her residence when the family lived in Las Vegas, she was later found hanging out with a group of homeless people. Water said it’s possible the same thing has happened again.

“She will talk to anybody and she hangs out with homeless people,” Ekizian said.

“She can walk very fast. She is a walker,” Water added. “She gets these notions in their head.”

Police and volunteers have been trying to find Schnepf for three days. An original description issued by police said Schnepf is 5 feet tall, 125 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. However, her family said Friday she is 4 feet 11 inches tall, and now weighs less than 100 pounds.

Anyone with information on Schnepf’s whereabouts can call police at 702-828-3111 or the Missing Persons Detail during business hours at 702-828-2907.

Contact Glenn Puit at gpuit@review-journal.com or 702-383-0390. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter.