Manchester woman who walked out of home missing 3 weeks

MANCHESTER, Tenn. (WKRN) — The last time Danielle Rocha saw her mother, Bonnie Williams, was July 9.

The day before, the Manchester Police Department (MPD) brought her back home after someone called about someone laying on the ground on the interstate exit in town. At the time, MPD said she refused medical treatment from first responders, so all they could do was bring her back home.

“The police said they watched back body camera footage and they saw that she was clearly disoriented, confused, not making any sense, but she refused medical assistance, so they couldn’t do anything with her but bring her back here,” Rocha told News 2.

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This was also the week Middle Tennessee saw high temperatures, with “feels like” temperatures over 100 degrees due to the humidity, Rocha said.

The beginning of the month is also when Williams started refusing food, she told News 2.

“She was done eating. She wouldn’t drink water,” Rocha said. “She’s a coffee addict—she always has to have her coffee—but she wouldn’t drink her coffee in the mornings. She wouldn’t drink her milk at night. She wasn’t taking any kind of medicine—no Tylenol, absolutely nothing.”

Rocha said her mother also refused to shower or change her clothes, even opting to sleep wearing tennis shoes. It’s how she knows what Williams was wearing when she disappeared.

The 56-year-old has been missing for 23 days, after she walked out of her daughter’s home and never returned.

It isn’t the first time her mother has simply walked out of her home, Rocha told News 2, but this is the first time she hasn’t returned. And even the spontaneous walks are relatively new, she added, only beginning in the last couple months.

The first time she left the home, Rocha said she began talking about how she was “going to die” and ended up being admitted to Ascension Saint Thomas Behavioral Health Hospital.

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“She came out of there and she was not herself,” Rocha said. “She was not okay. She was still talking about ‘I’m going to die,’ and stuff like that. I don’t know why she was ever released.”

The second time she walked out of the home, Rocha said she and her family had to chase her down and call the police. Police ended up taking her to a local hospital, but she was again transferred to Ascension Saint Thomas Behavioral Health.

“They kept her for maybe not even a week, and she came out of there again suicidal, talking about the devil, clearly not taking her medication,” she said. “I don’t know why she was released that second time. She was clearly not okay.”

Rocha fears her mother is in the middle of a mental health episode. With her prior refusal to eat or drink anything, Rocha believes her mother couldn’t have made it too far from home.

“I just don’t feel like she would have it in her to get far,” she said. “I saw how she was done taking care of herself physically before she left.”

MPD Investigator Bryan Eldridge is the lead on the case. He told News 2 nothing about Williams’ disappearance appears criminal at this time.

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After posting about her on Facebook, Eldridge told News 2 there were some tips that came in about possible sightings, but no leads have panned out thus far. The police have also spoken with Williams’ doctor and local area hospitals to see if she checked herself in anywhere. That was a dead end as well.

Both MPD and Rocha’s family have been out in the community on foot searching for Williams, but so far there has been no trace of the 56-year-old. Manchester police said they are planning another foot search “in the near future.”

“It’s been this long, and no one has seen her for certain,” Rocha said.

Still, she’s keeping hope alive that someone will see her mother and help bring her home, she told News 2.

Anyone who may have seen Williams is asked to contact Eldridge at the Manchester Police Department immediately at 931-728-2991 or call 911.

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