The case of the Alberta city councillor who vanished in Montana grew more mysterious Wednesday with news that she had been picked up overnight by police in Las Vegas and brought to hospital.
A police spokesman in Lethbridge, Alta., confirmed that Darlene Heatherington, an alderman who disappeared while on a business trip to Great Falls, Mont., had been found. Sergeant Jamie Fisher told globeandmail.com that Las Vegas police officers detained her after receiving a complaint of someone wandering around a city hotel.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department public information officer Jose Montoya confirmed that the incident took place but did not know what had prompted the complaint.
It was not certain whether she was alone, though Sgt. Fisher said that he believed she was.
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A spokeswoman at the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada said that Ms. Hetherington was brought in at 11:59 p.m. local time and discharged at 2:58 a.m. Under U.S. federal privacy guidelines, information about her condition cannot be released to the public, though community relations co-ordinator Cheryl Persinger did say that she was treated in the emergency ward, and not checked into the hospital proper.
The hospital spokeswoman said that Ms. Heatherington’s current whereabouts is unknown. She also did not know whether she had been released into the care of police..
Ms. Heatherington’s red rented Ford Focus was found Sunday afternoon in the Great Falls Civic Center’s parking lot. Her purse, shopping bags and other belongings were locked inside, but police found the car keys near one of the rear wheels. Since then, the city’s entire detective force has been searching for her.
The woman’s husband, firefighter and paramedic Dave Heatherington, said Tuesday that his family was struggling to deal with the disappearance, and that his children — Paige, 10, Brooke, 8 and Lane, 4 — had made Mother’s Day cards and crafts.
"One moment I’m okay and the next moment I’m in tears. We’ve been married 17 years and I cannot fathom any reason why this would be going on," he told Canadian Press.
A woman who answered the phone at the Heatherington household in Lethbridge on Wednesday said that Mr. Heathrington is avoiding all media inquiries. She did not say where he is — according to one report he is en route to Nevada to see his wife.
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