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Margrit Wilson's family continues search for missing woman

Margrit Wilson's family continues search for missing woman

It's been a torturous eight days for Linda Arndt.

On April 9, her sister, Margrit Wilson, walked away from an Edmonton psychiatric facility. The 72-year-old has been missing ever since.

"I want her to come home, I need her," Arndt said.

"We all do."

Wilson had been seeing a doctor regularly at Villa Caritas, a mental health facility that caters to seniors, for severe depression and delusional thoughts. Three weeks ago, after a bed at the facility opened up, she moved in on a full-time basis.

Two weeks later, Wilson wandered away from the facility, one day after she was given permission to access the grounds.

Lika Ruecker, Wilson's niece, said her aunt was struggling with a delusion that she had a contagious disease and was is "tormented" by the idea of making others sick.

"She left a message on my voicemail … she said 'Lika, I don't think they believe me that I really am sick and I'm going to make a lot of other people sick'," Ruecker said.

"[She said] 'these people are frail and they're good people. I can't be responsible for this.'"

Ruecker thinks the delusion was behind her aunt's decision to leave the grounds.

A spokesperson with Covenant Health, which manages the facility, would not comment on Wilson's disappearance.

"Covenant Health cannot comment on this case due to privacy policies of the Health Information Act," Jacqueline Janelle told CBC News.

Janelle said while some patients at Villa Caritas must remain at the facility, some have checked themselves in and are free to leave if they choose.

Arndt said there was no indication that her sister was planning to leave the facility and thinks it was an impulsive decision to walk away.

'She was so frightened'

Ruecker said she last saw her aunt in Old Strathcona, shortly after she left the facility.

While searching for Wilson, Ruecker received a text message from the manager of her old apartment in the neighbourhood. The manager said an elderly woman had come looking for her, attempting to deliver a letter.

Ruecker said she drove around Old Strathcona, looking for the woman. Just as she was about to give up, she spotted Wilson walking down the street, holding a letter in her hand. Ruecker abandoned her car in the middle of the street and tried to talk to her aunt.

"She was so frightened for me to come near her, she just begged me to stay away from her," she said.

"I pleaded with her to get into my car and come back to the facility. And she ran."

Ruecker said she returned to her car and tried to follow Wilson, but couldn't find her. That was the last time the woman was seen.

Since then, the family has kept searching for Wilson, scouring libraries and homeless shelters around the city. They've also searched through the river valley and are putting posters up across the city.

"Everywhere I have been so far, whether it is the doctor's office or dentist's, (the posters) are with me and I am giving them out," Ruecker said.

Arndt said she is hoping to find others to help join the search for Wilson so they can search a wider area. Until then, she feels helpless and is at a loss as to where to look next.

"I envision her being somewhere, alone and cold. Someone hurting her," she said.

"I'm deeply sad and very worried."