Age 53 Woman Found by Rancher 6 Days After Car Wreck in Arizona Desert
On October 12, a woman was driving along Highway 60 in Arizona near Wickenburg. It had been raining, and the road was slick.
Somehow, the 53-year-old lost control of her vehicle and went careening off the road and into a ravine. Her car dropped around 50 feet before landing on top of a mesquite tree.
Suffering broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder and a head injury, the unnamed woman stayed put, likely hoping that help would find her. But days passed, and no one came.
At some point days later, she ventured out of her car, heading for a nearby train track in hopes that she would be noticed — but her injuries were too severe for the trek, and she only made it about 500 yards.
That’s where she stayed, for who knows exactly how long, surviving on nearby plants and water. She only had what she was wearing on her, which included flip-flops, shorts and a t-shirt.
On October 18, Dave Moralez was looking for a rogue cow on Highway 60. According to Fox News, he had the help of his brother Zach Moralez, an AZ transportation worker, and a few others who were all assisting him in his cow-wrangling endeavor.
They noticed something odd unrelated to the cow as they continued along the highway: A fence along the road was damaged.
As they continued looking, they realized there was a car below the road, and footprints leading away from it. Realizing that someone could be in danger, they began searching, and eventually found the lethargic woman in a dry river bed.
“We got down there as quick as we could, hollering out if anyone could hear us,” Zach Moralez said. “No response.”
“She was in the fetal position, and there was no movement,” he continued. “We started asking her a bunch of questions: ‘How long have you been here? Do you have any pain?'”
“I believe people are put in the right place in the right time,” he concluded.
#BREAKING: Authorities say an #Arizona woman who lost control of her vehicle and fell 50 feet before crashing into a tree survived for six days before being rescued. https://t.co/9vtMdfaVYk pic.twitter.com/YGuzWNmqjf
— FOX 10 Phoenix (@FOX10Phoenix) October 31, 2018
When they found her, she was dirty, in pain, and her eyes were swollen. She was experiencing severe dehydration after being out on her own for six days.
“I don’t know if she could have made it there another night,” Dave Moralez said, according to Reuters.
She was airlifted to a hospital 15 minutes after the group found her.
Thankfully these men were observant enough that they noticed the damaged fence and went to investigate. If that woman had stayed out there any longer, she might have died, and whoever noticed the damaged fence would have stumbled across a much worse scene.
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