News & Politics - Missing teen survives 8 days in car wreck

Cail · 10-12-2004, 12:17 AM

Quote:

The Associated Press
Updated: 3:45 p.m. ET
Oct. 11, 2004
REDMOND, Wash. - 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 below a road in this suburb east of Seattle, King County sheriff’s deputies said.

Hatch was listed in serious condition at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where she was being treated for dehydration, a possible blood clot, broken ribs, a broken leg and facial injuries, said her sister, Amy Hatch.

“We were afraid that we weren’t going to find her, we weren’t going to get her back,” the sister 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 Sgt. 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.”

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.

That is amazing that she survived, but what I find really disturbing is that her family literally left her for dead. What kind of parents would agree to have no search party for their missing daughter? And to give up and let "her be dead in our hearts" after 8 days? I don't care how messed up their parent-child relationship was, it's just horrendous that they didn't fight to find their daughter harder.

I feel really sorry for the girl once she recovers. Not only is she going back to a family where it sounds like there were problems to begin with since they considered her a runaway, but now she has to deal with a family that gave up way too easily.

imajica · 10-12-2004, 12:40 AM

“We had already given her up and let her be dead in our hearts,” the girl’s mother, Jean Hatch, told KOMO-TV.

After only eight days? I know its hard to judge the different ways people react to a family tragedy but if that was me i would have to see the body before i would just give up like that.

CrabbyCancer69 · 10-12-2004, 02:28 AM

no search? That is pretty sad...but what a survivor she turned out to be!

The Daywalker · 10-12-2004, 12:59 PM

she ws probably drunk when she crashed, maybe this will teach her a lesson.

*Lauren · 10-12-2004, 06:22 PM

What? Where the hell do you have any proof for that? What a horrible thing to say.

TooTallVal · 10-13-2004, 03:00 AM

Hmm..that doesn't sound right to pronounce someone dead after eight days! And calling out for a police search? Come on!


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