Margaret Smith wandered away from her home Tuesday and was found hours later in a cornfield by volunteer searchers.

Smith, who had been diagnosed with dementia, was left alone by family members. When they returned and didn't find her in the house they searched the nearby farmland and then called 911.

First responders quickly realized the amount of resources it would take to search the cornfields and called in extra people from surrounding communities. Meanwhile, neighbors called others nearby and asked them to help.

"When the phone calls started going out people got here quick and they just kept arriving," said Wanda Johnson, who lives nearby.

Johnson was joined by Evan Davenport, 15, who arrived on a crop sprayer.

"My dad, he found out from my grandma and I heard [someone] had to get going to south bend and so I as soon got in the sprayer and came over here," said Davenport. "I started out driving that stuff when I was in kindergarten and it's a good thing to know how to do."

The crop sprayer gave neighbors a view above the corn so they could look for Smith. Meanwhile MedFlight and a small Indiana State Police plane searched overhead.

A few minutes after Davenport began driving in the field, a man riding on the side spotted Smith about 200 yards in and yelled to Johnson who was walking nearby.

"We'd seen the sprayer and we'd seen one of the guys on top he started jumping around trying to get the driver to stop and I went running to where he was running. We got there about the same time, but he actually spotted her," said Johnson. "She seemed okay. She was talking with us, she was pretty hot. I think she'd been out there a while and she just kept saying she fell and couldn't get up."

MedFlight took Smith to Memorial Hospital with symptoms of hyperthermia.

Police kept Pine Road near the Smith home blocked off for a few minutes longer to allow all of the volunteers to clear the road.

"It says a lot about people, a lot about this community and how we care," said Dep. Jeff Sharp with the Marshall County Sheriff's Dept. "I guess some people might look at it that we may have went overboard, but given the gravity of the situation and the temperature of the day, I don't think you can do too much."