A woman found wandering on the outskirts of Albany, Ore., last month has been positively identified as Marcia Lee Rackley, 67, of Norfolk, Va., according to the Linn County (Ore.) Sheriff’s Office.
Rackley suffers from severe mental illness, according to a press release issued Friday by Linn County Sheriff Tim Mueller. When she is not taking her medication, Rackley wanders, boards buses or trains, and often travels without any form of identification.
“[She] has been institutionalized or hospitalized for treatment of her mental illness in [several] states including New York, Maine, Florida, and, at one point, Canada,” the press release said.
Rackley, who was found on May 15, told Linn County officials her name was Katie Walker and that she had traveled from Maine to Oregon. The international search to identify her showed that she was in Chicago before heading west on a Greyhound bus for Portland, Ore.
A nurse who contacted deputies in Linn County said Rackley was admitted to a Chicago-area hospital on April 23 after she was seen in a bathroom at O’Hare International Airport for three days, the press release said. At that point Rackley had identification with her.
Once she was treated at the hospital, Rackley was admitted to a Chicago-area psychiatric center, according to Mueller. After treatment, she was released and purchased a bus ticket from Chicago to Portland.
The Chicago nurse put Linn County officials in contact with Rackley’s sister, who positively identified her Friday morning, the press release said.
Rackley has never been married and has no children, according to her sister, who was not identified by the sheriff’s office.
Mueller said in the press release that investigators working the case received more than 60 tips from across the U.S. and Canada. Those tips came in the form of emails, telephone calls and Facebook messages.
Three Maine agencies — the Maine State Police, the Fort Kent Police Department and the Aroostook County Sheriff’s Department — aided in the investigation.
So happy to hear that she’s been identified! Hopefully a support system can be created at home, so that she can remain lucid, and keep this from happening again!
I didnt understand the original article, why couldnt they look at her ticket and find out where she came from, grayhound DOES have a computerized system that tracks names and dates and places doesnt it? I also know that if she was mentally ill, the first place the cops should have looked to for information is the local mental hospitals, they do a thing called “greyhound” therapy, as in buying a one way ticket to get rid of them.
I didnt think she was from Maine.
She said y’all instead of ayuh.
Hope she is ok.
Wow. One of these States needs to step up and take responsibility for caring for this woman. Under the Penguin administration, we can be sure that it won’t be Maine, since there are hundreds of mentally ill people currently on a waiting list for adult mental health services.
And they want to CLOSE DDPC…makes no sense…
Check out pilotonline.com she has a bad habit of traveling with no id when she goes off her meds. Probably needs more supervision than she’s currently receiving.
These are the people the hospitals won’t keep….
Great job by the Linn County Sheriff’s Department for their efforts in finding the way home for this woman.
How frightening it must be for her (when she does get back on track with meds) to realize the danger she’s put herself in! If it were me, I’d have my name and social security number tattooed on my wrist. How sad to be so vulnerable and how incredible to have such a happy ending. Something tells me it won’t be the last time she does this,tho. Sad stuff.
If I get that way, I want my family to at least tattoo my behind w/return this person to Maine…
Someone needs to be taking better care of her obviously. If she is suppose to be in a mental health establishment and is at risk for wandering and jumping on buses/trains with no id then they should have better supervision and possibly even some sort of alarm system in the building and her having a bracelet that sets it off if she leaves. They do it with the elderly in nursing homes its for these people own safety. Someone needs to step up, next time they may not be so lucky to have had her found safely and treated well!!
Its not that easy Kristin. I take care of my bio-pop and his wife before her death. When I arrived here I found 2 people with dementia and absolutely no family or community support. They would often get in their car and just take off for a drive, God only knows how they ever made it back. They never took their meds and ate boiled beans, rice and tortillas almost exclusively. They would turn on the heat in the summer and put on several sets of sweat shirts, pants and knit caps and leave the door wide open in the winter. Or my favorite; they would turn on the heaters and crank them up until flames were shooting out.
I tried very hard to find some sort of support for them but NONE was available. The only other option was to make them wards of the state and send them to a nursing home. They didn’t need a nursing home, they needed in home aid. So my husband and I put our lives on hold to care for them. We have been here for nearly eight years and we still can’t get any help as we live in a very rural county and no agency has anyone who comes this far out. (we are in TX) This is why people, once released from an acute care facility tend to continue their decline. There is not follow-up.
If this woman has a history of doing this, repeatedly, then you are right, the last hospital that had her in their care was liable for her current situation. But thanks to Reagan our mentally ill no longer have a safety net. They are stabilized and sent on their way. That is why this sad story (although there is an almost happy ending) and thousands more just like it will continue to be played out in the streets of America every day.
Good for you for taking care of your family and not expecting others to do so. More people should take responsibility for their own.
Nice commentary. Too bad these poor people battling mental illness don’t have the ability to work the system in their favor like the hoodie punks that have already figured it out and keep moving here in droves. Much rather have my tax dollars helping the mentally ill.
Good on the nurse for recognizing her!!!
Glad she’s been identified, and hopefully can get back home and get treatment. Again.
I feel happy that this woman has been identified. I feel sad that all her personal details have been put on display for the entire world to see. I wonder who gave permission for this information to be released.
Her sister should get her a tattoo with her name and SS number on it. Since this seems to happen a lot!
Her sister needs to take responsibility for her own and take care of her!