Britney Gard, the Indiana mom who was determined missing after officials found her house on fire in what they called a “suspicious” incident last week, was located alive Wednesday in the woods close to her home.
The Putnam County Sheriff’s Office said Gard was found in a wooded area 2 1/2 miles from her house around 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday after officials received a call from the 46-year-old, who had been missing since Sept. 30.
In the call, Gard asked for help finding her way out of an area in Hall Woods Nature Preserve in Putnam County, Indiana, the sheriff’s office said in a Thursday statement. Officials were able to find her “quickly” after the call.
Gard was taken to a hospital nearby for a medical evaluation, the sheriff’s office said. Gard’s current condition is unknown, and the details of how she entered the woods are unclear.
The sheriff’s office said it is not looking for a person of interest in connection with the case and that there is no current threat to the general public. Authorities will continue to investigate the situation in order to “verify all incident information and bring a closure to this event.”
The last contact Gard had with her family before she vanished was the night of Sept. 30. Gard’s brother-in-law, Kenny Bowen, previously told NBC News that Gard called her 13-year-old daughter — who was staying at her father’s house — and told her she would see her the following day at the teenager’s volleyball game.
When Gard didn’t show up to the game, Bowen said, the family immediately suspected something was wrong. No one had any contact with Gard from the night of Sept. 30 until she was found on Wednesday.
Bowen said it was “like she vanished.”
Law enforcement responded to Gard’s home on Oct. 1 after smoke was seen coming from the residence, the sheriff’s office said in a statement last week. Officials who entered the home at the time did not find anyone inside, including Gard.
Bowen said that Gard’s daughter caught a ride home from the Oct. 1 volleyball game with a friend and was met by state police and fire department officials, who told her that her mother couldn’t be found.
Bowen told NBC News that Gard’s purse and ID were left at home and “there was no indication that she was planning to go somewhere on her own.”
Fire investigators later labeled the fire “suspicious in nature,” according to the sheriff’s office. Sheriff’s officials said in a Wednesday news release that the fire was extinguished and that the damage was limited to one part of Gard’s home.
An investigation into the fire and a search for Gard — which included searching the acres of cornfields around her residence — commenced shortly after. Gard’s four sisters and their families flew from all across the country to aid in search efforts, Bowen said.
