Aunt, 93, Dies in Extreme Cold a Block Away from Home. She Was Found Curled Up by a Power Pole (Exclusive)

A small town is mourning the loss of beloved community member Neather Kelly, who was found dead not far from her home earlier this week after her abandoned car was discovered in a ditch.

“Although she was my aunt, she was like a mother and grandmother to us all,” her niece Brenda Austin, 59, tells PEOPLE about the 50 or so extended family members who live nearby. “After her husband passed, she lived alone. She was very independent, but we checked on her daily.”

No one knows exactly what led Kelly, who would have turned 94 next month, to leave her home on the evening of Sunday, Jan. 24. That night, it was raining, with temperatures dropping down to around 29 degrees Fahrenheit.

“People had talked to her, told her to stay in the house,” Austin says. Although the family knew she was developing dementia and “would get confused every now and again,” they “didn’t want to take her independence away by taking her car.”

“Looking back,” she adds, “maybe we should have.”

The family only found out she’d left when a neighbor reported they found her abandoned 2005 Ford Escape in a water-filled ditch.

According to Austin, the neighbor came across the vehicle when returning home around 1 a.m. local time on Monday, Jan. 25. They didn’t find anyone near the car, but did see Kelly’s purse with a relative’s name and phone number inside. They also called 911.

A search was underway before dawn, with police and community members battling rainy conditions and low visibility to find Kelly.

A neighbor’s security camera captured her driving past their home Sunday evening sometime between 10:30-11 p.m., police and family members tell PEOPLE. The video showed her break lights coming on, but it was impossible to see which direction Kelly walked when she exited the vehicle.

Orangeburg County Sheriff Leroy Ravenell released a statement early Monday asking for help in finding the missing woman. 

“We are extremely concerned with the weather having been as cold as it is,” he implored in a message obtained by PEOPLE. “We need to locate her as soon as we can.”

Searchers looked in backyards, knocked on doors and pounded the pavement. They even thought she might have crawled into a space to seek shelter.

Finally, a niece of Kelly’s decided to try looking on an street that hadn’t yet been searched. Austin said the family member hoped she wasn’t the one to find a body because she had a daughter who was killed by a drunk driver three years earlier.

“She was still healing from that, grieving that loss, and she was the one to find my aunt,” Austin says, noting that Kelly’s body was found curled up near a power pole “not even a block away” from her own house.

“People with developing dementia frequently want to go to places they went to when they were younger,” Austin’s daughter, Stephanie Bell, tells PEOPLE. “She was found across the street from a church they used to go to.”

Orangeburg Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Deputy Richard Walker confirmed to PEOPLE that Kelly’s body was found about 9:15 a.m. on Monday.

“Unfortunately, this outcome is not what we had hoped and prayed for,” Orangeburg Sheriff Leroy Ravenell said in a statement. “Please pray for this family.”

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For now, the family is gathering around Kelly’s home, where she was famous for keeping a treasure trove of family photos.

They are looking through them all, remembering the feisty widow who lost her only son long ago, three of her five siblings and yet continued to live a life filled with joy, staying active in her church, her community and her family life.

“And at 93 years old, she was still wearing heels,” Austin says. “She loved her fashion. Everything bedazzled or sparkly, that was her.”