RIVERSIDE -- A woman who had been missing in Northumberland County since Monday has been found dead, police confirmed Thursday night.
According to Riverside police, the body of Joyce Kotzen was found in the Susquehanna River near Point Township by a state police helicopter.
Volunteers had spent most of the day Thursday looking for Kotzen.
Kotzen, 78, left her home in Riverside and never returned.
She had been missing for four days and on Thursday Riverside police organized a massive search with boats, dogs, an airplane, and volunteers searching the woods.
Those volunteers gathered at the Southside Fire Company in Riverside.
Kotzen was last seen by her husband who found a note left by Joyce saying she went for a walk.
Some of the volunteers knew Joyce.
"She loved to garden and so did her husband. They always had a big garden in the back of their house and you'd see her tending to it and you'd see her walking around the block," said friend Shelley Snyder.
Some volunteers heard about the search on TV.
"It was all over 16 this morning. I was off, didn't really have plans, so I would feel guilty if I didn't," said Alessandra Cavallini of Berwick.
They searched the woods from the air and on the water. Dogs sniffed the area.
The chief says the most credible tip came from a UGI truck driver who says he saw Joyce by the river Monday morning.
"He told me that the lady looked up at him as he went by and when he saw her picture on TV, he said, 'that's the lady that was down there,'" said Riverside Police Chief Kerry Parkes.
Investigators focused their search on the Susquehanna River. There were eight boats on the water from different fire companies in central Pennsylvania.
After volunteers checked the woods, they walked through the neighborhoods of Riverside.
"The response has been incredible. The people that showed up here this morning, that came out here, some of them called off work. Some of them didn't have to work today, but they're here," said Parkes.
"Because we're a community that cares, whenever something happens we all come together," added Snyder.
Riverside police said an autopsy will be scheduled to determine exactly how Kotzen died.
