As daylight spread across upper Cleveland County on the morning of June 13, 2009, county Emergency Management Director Dewey Cook was already hard at work.

Equipped with a radio device, he listened for beeps - clues that would help him find a missing woman who had walked off from home.

In Cleveland County, she is one of about 20 Project Lifesaver participants who range from elderly patients with dementia to a child with autism.

Within six minutes, Cook had tracked the 79-year-old woman, an Alzheimer's patient, and found her behind a mobile home about a mile from her house.

Nationwide, the project has conducted more than 2,000 successful searches, with a couple of those coming from Cleveland County.

This summer, Cleveland County's Project Lifesaver received two awards for quickest searches, and that's something Cook is proud of, especially since he took on a key role in both.
"What we do when we get a call is we follow the guidelines," said Cook. "We turn on the receiver, then get in the area.
"I picked up a signal with the all-directional antenna, then switched to the directional one," he said. "It hones you in to where the person is."

Cook is one of a group of officials from law enforcement and emergency management who work with the project.

"We're a team," he said. "When we make a find, it's a team effort."

Project Lifesaver has joined with LoJack, the company that tracks stolen vehicles, to make finding lost clients even easier, said Cleveland County Sheriff's Office Lt. Wayne Thomas.

The transmitters were previously equipped with a radio frequency tracking device, which is now coupled with the satellite capabilities of LoJack, he said.

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