ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – Ernestine Merritt was known as “Ernie” to her church family at Greenforest Community Baptist Church, where she served as an usher greeting members and guests at the front doors each Sunday.
The 79-year-old woman with dementia left her Ellenwood home at 4 a.m. on Jan. 4, 2026, determined to get to church on her own. She never made it.
Doorbell footage revealed when Merritt left her house. DeKalb County police and volunteers searched the woods, the neighborhood and nearby highway bridges for four days before locating her body in a nearby creek…