Officers made brief phone contact with woman who’s been missing for days

NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) – We’ve learned that authorities were briefly able to make phone contact with a missing woman before they ramped up a search for her last week.

Susan Rhodes, 65, has been missing since shortly after she was in a car accident last week on Gregory Lake Road. She wandered away into the woods after the crash, seeming disoriented, according to witnesses.

Authorities have been searching for her, with no success.

Up until today, we were under the impression that no one had had any contact with her since the crash around 2 p.m. Wednesday.

But an incident report from the North Augusta Department of Public Safety shows that with Edgefield County deputies present, her roommate called Rhodes after she’d wandered off.

Rhodes did sound disoriented and indicated she was suffering some kind of medical condition, as authorities have suspected. A deputy urged her to call 911 so her phone could be pinged, but she hung up.

Authorities contacted her phone company and were able to ping her phone, and that’s when they decided to launch a search for her in the heavily wooded area near Gregory Lake.

Her roommate said Rhodes had been complaining all day about blood pressure and stroke-like symptoms, backing up the belief that she was suffering a medical emergency.

In addition, she reportedly had one arm in a sling when she wandered away from the crash.

The incident report also gives more details on the car accident than we’d previously known.

A 30-year-old witness described it to deputies. He said he’d been traveling on Gregory Lake Road away from Martintown Road behind a Chevrolet Malibu that was all over the road. The Malibu was being driven by Rhodes.

The witness said that just past Gregory Landing Drive, the Malibu left the left side of the road before returning to the road, where it struck a Toyota sport utility vehicle on the passenger side with its passenger front.

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The Malibu then left the right side of the roadway and entered a ditch.

The witness helped Rhodes get out of the car.

He said she appeared disoriented and out of it before she walked off and entered a driveway in the 2200 block of Gregory Lake Road.

Initially, a search was conducted by drone, but a large downpour made that difficult.

That’s when Rhodes’ roommate and deputies were able to contact her by phone.

After she hung up, North Augusta police decided to launch a grid search of the area.

No one has reported hearing from her since then, although deputies believe they saw her footprint near a creek.

The search continued through the weekend, but authorities received no new information from it.

They say they don’t think she’s still in the area.

They’ve printed fliers, and Rhodes’ picture is also being shown on digital billboards, with no success.

She was wearing a red shirt, black shoes and a hat. She is 5 feet 5 inches tall.

If you see her or have any clues, call 803-441-4200.

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