A "vibrant, happy and devoted" mother-of-two died from hypothermia, an inquest decided as her family raised concerns over the level of resources used to find her.
Suffolk's senior coroner heard the timeline of events after Ginette "Netty" Rose left her home in Red Lodge, west Suffolk, last November at an inquest on Tuesday.
Miss Rose was last seen shortly before 10pm on Sunday, November 14, and the emergency services were called later the same evening.
That evening, clothes matching those worn by Miss Rose were found near a school, with a post-mortem describing the action of taking clothes off as a common response to hypothermia.
Searches had begun that evening and into Sunday, with police, fire and national rescue services, including 38 volunteers, involved in the search for the Suffolk mum.
Drones and police dogs were also used.
Miss Rose's family asked questions about the search process, as the court heard a family member found Miss Rose in woodland, around two miles from her home on November 16.
Her partner Nigel Sanders said: "How the authorities didn't find her is a mystery to me. After 40 hours of searching they found nothing and it was actually members of the public that found her.
"In my personal point of view, responses were deployed in the wrong areas at the wrong times for the wrong things."
Mr Sanders also told officers the 36-year-old had had her thyroid removed, which affected her body in relation to temperature.
Evidence given in court explained the process of the search and that Miss Rose had been categorised as high risk.
Mr Parsley said officers had responded with what they could and was available to them at the time.
Ginette, known affectionally as Netty, was born in Newmarket, and lived with her partner and children in Red Lodge.
A statement from the family read to the inquest described Netty's devotion to her family, including her two children and described her "vibrant and happy" personality.
They said every photo or card was kept by Netty and the events that transpired were "out of the ordinary".
The senior coroner recorded a narrative conclusion into Miss Rose's death.
He said the mum-of-two had died from unprotected exposure to cold.
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