CANTON - A 44-year-old Central Illinois woman who had been missing from a nursing home since September has been found living in a grain bin.

Jamie Howard had been sleeping in a makeshift bed made of plastic and carpet and surviving on crabapples, said Canton Police Chief Dan Taylor. She wandered from the grain bin to a nearby home Monday seeking shelter from the cold.

The woman, who was being treated for dehydration, is bipolar and has been diagnosed with cancer and schizophrenia, Taylor said. She hadn't been seen since leaving a nursing home Sept. 16.

Authorities stepped up their search for her once the weather turned cold. She also disappeared last year and was found three weeks later living in a wooded area.