Old lady reunited with her family after she is found roaming streets

A woman who disappeared without a trace nearly 24 years ago has been reunited with her family.

The Eerste River family of Jeanette van der Horst, 54, says after years of searching, they got a helse skrik when they saw her face on a missing persons flyer on Tuesday as The Pink Ladies Missing Persons Organisation renewed efforts to find her family.

The sickly woman was last seen in 2000 after the tragic death of her young son, Craig.

Pink Ladies representative, Nadiema Salie, says they were called to Elsies River Police Station on Tuesday afternoon as cops sought their help to locate the family of Jeanette, who had been found roaming the streets.

Nadiema explains: “A passerby saw the elderly lady roaming the streets, disorientated, and decided to pick her up and drop her off at the police station.

“When I arrived at the police station, I found that she had difficulty with her speech due to a growth on her neck and left side of her mouth.

“She gave me an address in Melton Rose, Eerste River and I contacted Leonora Fransman of Jaycee Foundation and Wendell Slabbert, a community worker from Eerste River, to assist in making contact with the family who lived there but it came up as negative for the name she gave us.”

The Pink Ladies team released a flyer with the woman’s image on social media and appealed for help in finding her family and that is when her niece, Samantha Lottering, called them.

Nadiema adds: “During the telephone call, it was established that Jeanette Van Der Horst was reported missing at Home Affairs in 2002.

“We took her to the Victim Empowerment Room to clean her up before her family arrived. This is a great tale of a miracle reunion.”

Niece Samantha says: “We last saw her in the year 2000, that’s when she lost her son who I believe was only five or six years old and after his funeral we never saw her again. In 2002 my mother started searching for her.”

At Home Affairs, they learned that her aunt had not been reported as deceased, and they searched the places she was known to visit in Bellville, Lansdowne and Parow.

Samantha says her aunt was a domestic worker and has another child, Elvida.

Samantha adds: “Elvida and I are the same age and grew up like sisters. She would always ask my mother if there’s any news regarding her mother.”

She says the family was in disbelief when they saw the flyer.

The niece shares: “I received the poster and showed it to my mother and asked her if she knew who the woman was. She was shaking and said, ‘moenie k*k praat nie, rerag’?”

She says her aunt is doing much better: “I can tell she remembers a lot of people who unfortunately passed on while she was missing.”