In Utah, an 18-month-old baby miraculously survived after her mother’s vehicle veered off the road and landed upside down in a river. On March 8th, police with the Spanish Fork Police Department arrived at the scene and claimed they heard the voice of an adult woman pleading for help from inside the vehicle.
Officer Jared Warner, who was one of the police at the scene, told CNN, “The four of us heard a distinct voice coming from the car. To me, it didn’t sound like a child’s voice.” Four officers rushed to the wreckage but when they arrived they realized that the mother, Lynn Groesbeck, died hours before the call for help. The police found 18-month-old Lily unconscious, but alive, inside of her car seat.
Miraculously, the little girl survived for 14-hours without food or water and was trapped upside down in her car seat above the frigid water. Now some say that the low temperatures alone could have killed her. In fact, the first responders who rescued Lily had to be treated for hypothermia after they got out of the river.
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Thankfully, Lily’s health is improving and her family commented on the girl’s survival. They said, “Her improvement is astounding. Right now she’s watching ‘Dora (the Explorer)’ and singing ‘(The) Wheels on the Bus’ with Grandpa. She is smiling and laughing for family members. We’re blown away by Lily’s progress and so grateful to her rescuers.”
The mother was dead. The child was unconscious, but her eyelids were fluttering, and the rescuers knew she was alive, Warner said. It’s one of those things that doesn’t have an explanation, he said about the voice.
“It felt like I could hear someone telling me, ‘I need help,'” DeWitt told CNN affiliate KSL. “It was very surreal, something that I felt like I could hear.”
Tyler Beddoes, a third officer at the scene, said the same. “Someone said ‘help me’ inside that car,” he said.
The river is 10 feet deep in some places, police said, but the car hit a shallower spot. Images showed it only partly covered by water. Lily was not submerged, said Police Lt. Matt Johnson.
Firefighter Paul Tomadakis freed her from the wreck. He “grabbed the baby in my arm, raised its head up out of water, as I tried to release the seat belt,” he said. Then Warner took Lily into his arms. “The child was passed to me and I ran up and climbed into the ambulance with the child,” he said.
Police have no explanation for the wreck. No alcohol or drugs were in play, they told WUTV. There were no skid marks leading up to the impact. A tow truck hauled Groesbeck’s car out of the river, and it will be inspected for possible mechanical failures.
Watch the video below to learn more about the bizarre incident.
