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UPDATE: This story has been updated with further information provided by Police Chief Michael Cerone.
IRVINGTON, N.Y. -- The Westchester County Medical Examiner Office confirmed the body found in Irvington on Monday is 84-year-old Betty Iannarelli, the woman who wandered from her Irvington home in early August and had been the subject of a community-wide search effort.
The medical examiner's office said the cause and the manner of death are undetermined.
Irvington Police Chief Michael Cerone said a groundskeeper found Iannarelli's body in a wooded marshland north of Matthiessen Park around 3:15 p.m. on Monday. Cerone said the heavy rains, followed by a heat wave, likely made it more difficult for police dogs to locate Iannarelli.
The weather played a part in it, Cerone said. The day after she went missing we had a serious rain storm.
Cerone said Iannarellis body was found in between a hurricane fence made of plastic and a foot and a half high stone wall. The area she was found in, which was just a quarter of a mile from her home, could not be seen from eye level, according to Cerone.
If you look across, theres a drop off from where youre standing, he said. I would say she was there from when she went missing.
Iannarelli, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease, had been missing for a month after wandering from her South Broadway home. She was last seen on Aug. 5 at 1:55 a.m. on a surveillance camera walking up Main Street in an aqua blue housedress and flip-flops. In addition to the ongoing police search for Iannarelli, friends and neighbors joined in the search, held a candlelight vigil, while the family offered a reward in hopes of finding her.
Myself and the police department and the village of Irvington offer our condolences, Cerone said. We did everything we possibly could.
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