Missing Radcliff woman found inside her own home

Police aren’t sure how long a missing Radcliff woman had been where they found her Wednesday afternoon, but the search for Gwendolyn S. Payne ended at a surprising place: Her home on Elm Road.

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Payne, 49, who was last seen at 12:30 a.m. Sunday by a neighbor, was found underneath a bed in her home just before 4:30 p.m.

Radcliff Police Department spokesman Bryce Shumate said Payne was discovered “underneath a bed in her home completely covered with blankets.” She was in a small cubby hole under a converted water bed in the home “that no one could see.”

Shumate said Payne was “awake and alert.’’ She was taken to Hardin Memorial Hospital for observation.

Officials are unsure if Payne had been in the home all along or had returned to the home overnight or while police and fire departments searched for her.

Shumate said police returned to the residence Wednesday afternoon to pick up another scent for a K-9 unit. It was then that Payne was located when the dog led officials to where she was found.

Shumate said “plenty of other K-9 (were) in the residence” and this dog was the first to alert.

A search at Saunders Springs Nature Preserve started around noon Wednesday, but revealed nothing.

Police were notified after Payne, who works at McDonald’s in the Walmart in Radcliff, did not show up for her scheduled work shift Sunday or Monday. For about seven hours Tuesday, the Kentucky Bloodhounds Association out of Jefferson County supplied dogs to search for a scent. Shumate said one of the bloodhounds picked up Payne’s scent and went into Saunders Springs, the nature park off Wilson Road about a mile and a half from her home.

In addition to RPD and the Kentucky Bloodhounds Association, officials from the Radcliff Fire Department, Vine Grove Fire Department and Fort Knox Fire Department assisted with Tuesday’s search.

Jeff D’Alessio can be reached at (270) 505-1757 or jdalessio@thenewsenterprise.com.