Washington Teen Is Found Alive After Eight Days
Captain Rob Torrey, Redmond Fire Department
Associated Press
REDMOND, Washington (AP) -- A teenager was found alive in her wrecked car after being missing for eight days.
Laura Hatch, 17, last seen at a party Oct. 2, was found Sunday in her 1996 Toyota Camry about 150 feet (50 meters) below a road in this suburb east of Seattle, King County sheriff's deputies said.
Hatch was in a serious condition at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. She was being treated for dehydration, a possible blood clot, broken ribs, a broken leg and facial injuries, hospital spokeswoman Susan Gregg-Hanson said Monday.
``We were afraid that we weren't going to find her, we weren't going to get her back,'' Hatch's sister Amy told KING television in Seattle. ``This is the best thing that could happen because there were a million awful scenarios.''
Hatch evidently went eight days without food or water, sheriff's Sergeant John Urquhart said, adding that there had been no indication of foul play.
``There was no police search,'' he added. ``We felt she was most likely a runaway.'' Authorities did release a statewide bulletin and sent advisories to all local police agencies.
Sha Nohr, whose daughter is a friend of Hatch, found the teen Sunday in a wooded area where 200 volunteers had searched unsuccessfully the day before.
She said she had dreamed about a wooded area and went out to look Sunday with her daughter.
Along the way, Nohr said, she prayed: ``I just thought, 'Let her speak out to us.''' She barely managed to discern the wrecked car in some trees after climbing over a concrete barrier and down an embankment.
``I told her that people were looking for her and they loved her,'' Nohr recalled, ``and she said, 'I think I might be late for curfew.'''
Nohr called to her daughter, who flagged down a passing motorist.
More than 100 people cheered and sang at a church prayer service Sunday night that initially had been planned as a vigil.
``We had already given her up and let her be dead in our hearts,'' the girl's mother, Jean Hatch, told KOMO-TV.