ARLINGTON — Willie Schoellhorn wanted to celebrate his 78th birthday.

Unwilling to give into the disease that crept into his brain and robbed him of his memory, Schoellhorn decided to walk over to the American Legion for a drink.

But Alzheimer’s disease can be relentless. It sunk its claws into Schoellhorn on that cold December afternoon. It led him down a dirt path and stranded him in a field not far from home, where he and his wife had just shared birthday cake.

Schoellhorn’s body was found four days later about 50 feet from a major road.

His death weighs heavily on the hearts of the men and women who searched for the Navy veteran, especially when they think about a little plastic bracelet that could have saved his life.

"It’s pretty awful to think of someone dying cold, alone and afraid. It didn’t have to be that way," said Danny Wikstrom, a sergeant with the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office.

Wikstrom has been the driving force behind Project Lifesaver, a tracking system for people who suffer from Alzheimer’s, dementia, autism or other conditions that cause them to wander away.

Project Lifesaver can help find a missing person in minutes.

The program equips participants with bracelets that emit a unique radio frequency. Searchers can dial in the frequency to a receiver, which can detect the signal within a one-mile radius of the bracelet on the ground and a 10-mile radius from the air.

Time is critical in the cases of elderly patients who are easily disoriented, Wikstrom said.

National statistics show that the survival rate for an Alzheimer’s patient is cut in half if the person isn’t found within the first 12 hours, he said.

"We consider a search for someone with Alzheimer’s on par with a search for a missing child. It’s an emergency," Wikstrom said.

Project Lifesaver proved itself within months of being launched in 2002. Four searchers found a disabled man, who was wearing a bracelet, in 15 minutes. Just a month earlier, he went missing without the bracelet and it took dozens of searchers more than four hours to locate him.

There are about 32 clients, from ages 10 to 87, wearing the bracelets, including Wikstrom’s grandmother.

Sheriff’s volunteers visit each participant once a month to replace the batteries in the bracelets. They also remind caregivers to call 911 if the person hasn’t been located within 10 minutes.

Ardelle Schoellhorn regrets not calling police sooner about her missing husband.

"I thought ‘he’s gone up there a 1,000 times. He knows his way back,’" she said. "It was very hard to know what to do."

Willie Schoellhorn had always been strong. He survived World War II and the Korean War. He was independent, his wife said.

Alzheimer’s changed all that, and it wasn’t easy for Schoellhorn to accept, his wife said.

He would wait for his wife to leave the room before heading out the door for his walks.

Ardelle Schoellhorn talked to a doctor on several occasions about her husband’s condition and his penchant for walking around town.

"To restrict him or put him in a nursing home would have been death sentence," she said. "I do wish I would have gotten him a bracelet for Christmas instead of the slippers he wanted."

The bracelets cost $165 and the batteries are $15. Financial aid is available for those who can’t afford the units.

"We just hope that if anyone is worried about someone in their family, they’ll look at the program," Wikstrom said.

Reporter Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463 or hefley@heraldnet.com.

To learn more about Project Lifesaver or to donate money to buy bracelets for those who cannot afford them, call the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office at 425-388-3825.