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Frantic Search On For Missing Grandmother In Yonkers

YONKERS, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- A grandmother had been missing for nearly two days Monday night, after disappearing from her home in Yonkers.

As CBS 2's Derricke Dennis reported, missing persons posters were mounted all over the woman's neighborhood, as the search to find her grew desperate with each passing minute.

The face of Ethel Monroe, a 65-year-old cancer survivor, appeared Monday night on bus stops and utility poles. She was believed to be lost or missing for two days.

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Yonkers Woman Missing

"We're hoping that she's not dehydrated. We're hoping that she's not disoriented," said Monroe's sister, Rosalyn Guest. "But we know that, to a point, she is."

Monroe was last seen early Sunday morning at her home on Warburton Avenue in southwest Yonkers. She apparently wandered off in what her family said was a daze, while suffering the side effects of her cancer medication.

"And we do believe that the medication played a factor in this," Guest said.

Relatives and friends of the grandmother were worried sick, and her neighbors were on the lookout.

"It's personal at this point," said neighbor Jesus Berrios. "Aside from it being communal in the sense that she's our neighbor."

Slightly different than the picture that has appeared, Monroe now has grayish white hair. She was last seen wearing a beige and white jacket and flip-flops. Police believe she is on foot.

Her husband of 50 years can barely talk.

"I just came from work and I'm all puzzled, that's why," said Kevin Monroe. He said it was distressing, "very much so."

In addition to the flyers posted all over town, Yonkers police have been helping the family fan out and search. But one tip, that the grandmother may have been spotted in nearby White Plains, did not pan out.

"This is the first time that she's wandered off, and we're just looking for her because she needs treatment," Guest said.

Without the medication, her family is afraid she may not survive on her own.

Monroe also responds to the nickname "Trisha," or "Minister Monroe" because of her ties to a Yonkers church.

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