An elderly Fairmont, West Virginia woman who was last seen in late September of 2020 is still being sought by authorities.
Bertha Sistrunk, 79, was placed on a Silver Alert on Friday, Oct. 2, 2020, after her family reported her missing.
According to the Fairmont Police Department, Sistrunk lives on the east side of Fairmont and was last seen around 9:00 p.m. on Monday, September 28, on Ogden Avenue near Windmill Park.
Officers have used ground searches, canine search teams, drone searches, and search management in their efforts to locate Sistrunk. Volunteers also have aided in the searches.
The holiday season is rapidly approaching, and Sistrunk’s family will be particularly affected.
She was one of the family’s cooks, so every year when Christmas rolled around, everyone got to enjoy the meals she prepared for her loved ones.
“She was the chef of our family,” said Bill Campbell, Sistrunk’s nephew. “She could cook a lot of good Southern cuisine and I think she has been to my house probably five or six times for Thanksgiving dinner cooking for us, so it’s tough around this time.”
On the night she went missing September 29, she was last seen around 9 p.m. that night by a police officer near Windmill Park. Campbell said Sistrunk’s home is on the East Side of Fairmont, so he is not sure why she would have walked all the way across the High-Level Bridge and up around the bend to Windmill Park.
“She was discharged from WVU hospital and dropped off at home at approximately 6 p.m.,” Campbell shared. “From there, the police pieced together that sometime around 8, she was seen downtown. A little bit before 9 p.m., they had got a 911 call that someone had seen an older woman walking on Ogden Avenue and thought she might need assistance.”
Sistrunk’s case is being handled by Zachary Buck of the Fairmont Police Department, who claimed the department has sent out search and dive teams, but they have found nothing. He stated that all tips received by the agency will be investigated in order to locate the missing woman.
Sistrunk is a black woman who stands 5 feet 5 inches tall, weighs 170 pounds, and has short black hair.
She was originally seen wearing a blue and pink robe, a blue nightcap, and blue stockings. Additional descriptions include her wearing khaki pants or dark orange and khaki pants, a black/white patterned or floral design blouse, possibly a purple sweater, and/or a blue/green jacket or a 34-length tan jacket since the initial investigation.
Anyone with information about her whereabouts is asked to call the Fairmont Police Department at 304-366-4200. Detectives are looking for a film that may show where Sistrunk went or traveled from the 28th onwards, in addition to looking for her.