Husband Thanks Rescuers Who Found His Wife In Farmington Wilderness

FARMINGTON, Utah – The husband of a Farmington woman who went missing for almost 36 hours thanked rescuers for finding her, while he also opened up about the difficulties of dealing with dementia.

Laura Waldron, 54, got lost while hiking with her two dogs Wednesday afternoon. Rescuers eventually located her.

Waldron’s husband, Kent, said it was a hike she did often – multiple times a day. He said she always made it back within a couple of hours, but after she went missing, her family realized how quickly dementia could change that.

He praised rescuers who found and plucked her from a mountain just outside of Farmington.

Kent Waldron and his daughter said 2021 would be a special Mother’s Day, while they considered some tough lessons learned about her condition.

I've also got an interview with Laura Waldron's husband Kent, for @KSL5TV at 6. He shares his thanks to the many rescuers and volunteers, and his hard lessons learned about early onset dementia. pic.twitter.com/MN3tS0Qoq9

— Mike Anderson (@mikeandersonKSL) May 7, 2021

From the moment they learned she was spotted by helicopter to being able to kiss her and hold her in their arms again, they said the amount of relief the family felt was hard to express.

“I am very grateful for her dogs, because the loyalty that that lab and red heeler had for her, and not leaving her – it gave her the warmth to spend the night up there on the hillside,” Kent Waldron said.

Aside from Copper and Keeina, Kent Waldron and his family were grateful to the dozens of rescuers who volunteered their time and a community that responded immediately.

“The number of people that we saw up on the hill, that I’ve never seen before. We passed so many people on the trails and going up on the hillside,” he added.

Now that she’s back home and away from the news cameras, Kent said he was faced with the reality of her condition, and the changes.

“She was a school teacher for 20 years, (but) couldn’t remember lesson plans. She’d have trouble remembering addresses, phone numbers, names,” he said.

She got to a place where the walks were routine and not a problem.

Laura Waldron recalled very little of the ordeal.

“She remembers seeing the helicopter, waving to them and how grateful she was when they waved back,” Kent Waldron said.

He said they figured out she fell into the water at one point.

“Being wet and in the stream and cold in the canyon, (it) must have been quite a night,” he said.

Kent said he hopes his family and others can learn from what went wrong. At the very least he planned to put trackers on the dogs and get Laura to wear a GPS watch.