UPDATE 9:55 p.m. – Connie Cawley, who was reported missing Wednesday around 8:30 p.m. after going for a walk near her home in Centennial Park, Arizona, earlier that evening has been found alive but dehydrated, Michael Cawley, the woman’s husband, said Thursday.

“Yes, they have found her,” Michael Cawley said, adding he was informed by authorities around 8 p.m. that his wife had been located.

It was the happy ending he said he was hoping for, knowing that his wife was alone in the desert for nearly 28 hours.

“Through a lot of people’s effort and organization and searching far and wide in our desert home, we were able to find her late this evening,” he said.

Michael Cawley said he believed there were volunteer crews searching “a good 20 to 25 square miles of area is what it felt like.”

“We’re just glad we were able to find her before another really cold night. She is able to walk – a little dehydrated – but seems to be doing well at this point.”

Connie Cawley was still being examined by medical crews in an ambulance when St. George News spoke to her husband.

Approximately 250 people assisted in the search, Michael Cawley said, adding, “There’s not much out there for quite a ways.”

Connie Cawley was found about 8 miles southwest of Centennial Park in the open desert, he said. She was seen by a passerby, who notified a Colorado City-Hildale marshal who then was able to find and make contact with the missing woman.

A few minutes after the initial contact with Connie Cawley, a search and rescue team from Centennial Park arrived to help bring the woman to safety, Michael Cawley said.

“Just a huge outpouring of support and help from the community here in Centennial Park. I think that’s what helped us ultimately to find her.”

ST. GEORGE —Authorities are asking for the public’s help in locating a woman reported missing Wednesday evening from her home in Centennial Park, Arizona.

Search and rescue personnel began looking for Connie Cawley, 36, around 8:35 p.m. after the woman’s friends reported she did not return home after going on a walk.

Michael Cawley, Connie Cawley’s husband, said she was last seen about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in the vicinity of the airport near the town of Centennial Park, Arizona, a community near Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona.

Connie Cawley is described as being 5’6″ with blonde hair and was wearing an orange top with long sleeves covered by a teal-green sweater vest and a brown denim skirt when she left home.

“We are concerned that she may have become disoriented or hurt, so we again encourage people to check their own properties in case she is ‘lost’ close to home but unable to process her surroundings,” the Hildale and Colorado City Search and Rescue Facebook page said.

Patricia Carter, spokeswoman for the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office, said the circumstances surrounding Connie Cawley’s disappearance are  unusual. The missing woman has been known to be suffering from depression, Carter said.

Because Connie Cawley is an adult who left of her own volition, she is not considered a true missing person, she added.

“Who knows where she went,” Carter said. “Or if she’s truly having some issues. Nonetheless, we did respond, we’ve been active out there today.”

The Mohave County Sheriff’s Office, Arizona Department of Public Safety, and the Hildale and Colorado City Search and Rescue have been mobilized in the search for Cawley. Arizona Department of Public Safety sent a helicopter from Flagstaff to aid in the search on Wednesday.

Anyone who has seen Connie Cawley or has information about her disappearance should contact the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office at 928-753-0755

Description of Cawley

• Name: Connie Cawley
• Age: 36
• Race: Caucasian
• Height: 5’6″
• Weight: 145 pounds
• Hair color: brown
• Eye color: blue

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