Missing woman found in woods near her home

Nearly 24 hours after a disabled woman wandered away from her Beech Island home Tuesday, a neighbor found the cold, wet woman about 650 yards away from her residence, deputies said.

Forty-four-year-old Tonya Wilds had been in the woods the entire time, said Capt. Troy Elwell, a sheriff's office spokesman.

"She made the comment that she left her family (Tuesday) and had been wandering in the woods all night long," he said.

She was wearing the same black shirt and red pants that she was reportedly wearing when she walked away from home.

Wilds was not wearing shoes and did not have a purse or wallet with her, he added.

Investigators said they don't know why the woman walked away, but when the neighbor found her, she was very cold and disoriented.

"Other than that, she seemed to be okay," Elwell said.

Wilds has the mental capacity of a 10-year-old and is dependent on a number of medications that she did not have with her when she walked away.

Deputies said they don't know how far she had wandered from home, but investigators don't believe she was able to get any sleep.

She was checked out by Aiken EMS and is back at home with her family, Elwell added.

"We would have liked to find her sooner, but other than that, this couldn't have worked out much better," he said.

The search involved scores of officers from throughout Aiken County as well as agents from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.

State agents flew a SLED helicopter, and a sheriff's office pilot searched for Wilds using the county's plane until darkness fell.

The search was scaled back, but crews stayed out all night, Elwell said.

Karen Daily has been at the Aiken Standard for 10 years and is currently the health and crime reporter. She is a graduate of USC.