Injured woman crawls out of swamp along I-5
TACOMA, Wash. -- A trucker was changing a flat tire Thursday morning on Interstate 5 south of Tacoma when he saw a woman in her underwear crawl over the guardrail from a swamp near the Nisqually River.
"I thought it was a transient or hitchhiker so I was reaching over to lock the doors, but then I noticed it was a young lady," said John Davis, the trucker who stopped to help.
"She said she's been in the marsh for a while and she needed a ride to the next town. She was soaking wet and covered from head to toe with cuts and bruises."
Davis drove on with his flat tire to get the woman to a weigh station at DuPont to call for help at about 8:30 a.m.
Trooper Guy Gill said the 23-year-old Centralia woman was treated at a hospital and is expected to make full recovery.
Investigators are still trying to determine exactly how the woman ended up in the water, but Gill said it appears she was with a man in an SUV that was found about 200 yards from the freeway at the end of a dirt road.
"At some point during the evening she separated herself from that vehicle, crawled through a swamp and sticker bushes and berries and all kinds of brush to get to I-5," he said.
Investigators believe the man may have been driving the SUV, but they have not been able to find him. Gill said dispatchers received reports about 12:30 a.m. of a man matching his description walking near I-5 without a shirt on.
"We believe he got picked up and left her at that vehicle," Gill said.
It was not clear if the SUV broke down or why the two were stopped at the end of the dirt road.
Gill said the woman decided at some point to leave the vehicle and made her way to the freeway.
"I think she got turned around a little bit," he said, adding that she may have taken off some of her clothes when they became heavy and soaked with water.
While investigators are trying to determine what happened to her, Gill says the truck driver probably saved her life.
"I'd do it again if I had to," Davis said. "I just couldn't find it in myself to leave somebody on the side of the road."
"I thought it was a transient or hitchhiker so I was reaching over to lock the doors, but then I noticed it was a young lady," said John Davis, the trucker who stopped to help.
"She said she's been in the marsh for a while and she needed a ride to the next town. She was soaking wet and covered from head to toe with cuts and bruises."
Davis drove on with his flat tire to get the woman to a weigh station at DuPont to call for help at about 8:30 a.m.
Trooper Guy Gill said the 23-year-old Centralia woman was treated at a hospital and is expected to make full recovery.
Investigators are still trying to determine exactly how the woman ended up in the water, but Gill said it appears she was with a man in an SUV that was found about 200 yards from the freeway at the end of a dirt road.
"At some point during the evening she separated herself from that vehicle, crawled through a swamp and sticker bushes and berries and all kinds of brush to get to I-5," he said.
Investigators believe the man may have been driving the SUV, but they have not been able to find him. Gill said dispatchers received reports about 12:30 a.m. of a man matching his description walking near I-5 without a shirt on.
"We believe he got picked up and left her at that vehicle," Gill said.
It was not clear if the SUV broke down or why the two were stopped at the end of the dirt road.
Gill said the woman decided at some point to leave the vehicle and made her way to the freeway.
"I think she got turned around a little bit," he said, adding that she may have taken off some of her clothes when they became heavy and soaked with water.
While investigators are trying to determine what happened to her, Gill says the truck driver probably saved her life.
"I'd do it again if I had to," Davis said. "I just couldn't find it in myself to leave somebody on the side of the road."
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