A PENSIONER who sparked a large scale search of the North York Moors when she went missing in freezing conditions was found two weeks later by a game keeper partly covered in snow, an inquest heard.

Retired schoolteacher Barbara Colling, 68, who suffered from dementia and moderate Alzheimers, went missing from her home in Helmsley on January 28.

An extensive package of care was set up by her family after she was diagnosed, but she was determined to live an independent life at her home, the inquest in Scarborough was told.

She was still coming to terms with losing her partner Clive, a university head of department, the previous year.

Carer Ruth Sutcliffe who found Mrs Colling's house empty when she arrived, raised the alarm.

Mrs Sutcliffe told the inquest, in Scarborough: “She lost her husband the previous year and was still recovering. She used to go for 20 to 40 minute walks. Sometimes she used to go to her late husband’s grave.”

Mental healthcare nurse Alistair Barker, of Tees, Esk and Wear Valley NHS Trust, said dementia sufferers could wander off and not know where they were, although this had never happened previously with Mrs Colling. 

He said her family who had paid for an extensive package of care that went way beyond normal, would have taken steps to prevent it.

"Dementia affects people in different ways. Some can accept it and others cannot. Unfortunately, Mrs Colling was one of the latter.

"She was a very pleasant, private, shy woman. When she did have memory lapses she dismissed them as "just a blip,"" he added.

North Yorkshire Police, mountain rescue volunteers and many members of the community were involved in a series of extensive search operations across the moors to find Mrs Colling.

But no trace of her was found until February 13 when a gamekeeper discovered her body on Hawnby Moor. She was partly covered in snow, indicating she had been dead for some time from hypothermia.

North Yorkshire East Coroner Michael Oakley recorded a verdict of accidental death. He said: "An extensive search was carried out to no avail immediately.

"We know from the evidence she had not been wandering off before in this way.

"Otherwise, steps would probably have been taken to see she did not.

"She was equipped for walking when she was found but it was a very cold time of year."