MADISON -- Authorities are still searching for any new leads in the disappearance of a Bellingham woman and her car after she left a Madison hospital Dec. 19.
The Lac qui Parle County Sheriff's Department is continuing to ask anyone who may have any information on the possible whereabouts of 79-year-old Verene D. Raaf to contact the office.
Raaf has been missing since 10 p.m. Dec. 19 after she left the Madison Hospital. The Sheriff's Department reports that no leads or substantial information has been received in the two-week period since her disappearance.
Raaf was driving a 2004 tan Buick LeSabre, Minnesota license JLL769 and was believed to be headed to her rural Bellingham home. She was wearing a hooded, green/gray coat, a blue button-up T-shirt and dark pants. She does not have her required prescription drugs with her.
Searchers have gone over the route from the hospital to her residence on the ground and by air. The Civil Air Patrol logged 45 hours of air search on Dec. 23, and private planes also logged hours in the search.
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The search has been expanded. Community members have been asked to take the time to check along roadways and check groves, drainage ditches, vacant farm sites and any other area that is not visible from the road.
No indication of foul play has surfaced, the Sheriff's Department noted.
Persons with information should call the Sheriff's Department at 320-598-3720.
-- Eric Ebert
