14 DAY TRIAL // A missing woman has been found trapped in her crashed car after writing SOS messages on an umbrella to catch the attention of passers-by. Kristin Hopkins, from Highlands Ranch, Colorado, was rescued after spending six days in her car wreckage without food or water.
The 43-year-old mother of four was found alive nearly a week after her family reported her missing. She is now in critical condition following the accident in which she is believed to have lost control on her vehicle.
Kristin was reportedly driving on a mountain highway on April 29 when she lost control of her 2009 Chevrolet Malibu and the car crashed 140 feet (42 meters) off the side of the mountain. She spent six days in her upturned vehicle in a small grove below U.S. Highway 285, about 80 miles (128 km) from Denver. Her family reported her missing on the same day she disappeared without a trace.
The woman was eventually rescued on Sunday after writing desperate pleas on an umbrella and poking it out of a window.
“Please help doors won't open,” “Six days, no food, no water; please help me; need a doctor,” the woman wrote on the notes.
According to New York Daily News, a group of people who were driving along the mountain highway spotted her wrecked car down an embankment near Red Hill Pass. Park County Undersheriff Monte Gore said the group initially reported they had “found a body in a vehicle.”
However, when emergency crews arrived at the scene, they found Hopkins alive inside the car. Doctors say Kristin was severely dehydrated and critically injured, but was “conscious and coherent.” She was immediately transported to St. Anthony Hospital in suburban Denver. Sadly, she will have to have both her feet amputated as a result of her injuries, but she will survive.
“The crash alone would have taken its toll on her,” Colorado State Trooper Dean Enright said. “It's surprising that she survived the crash at all, and then to be down there for that amount of days without food or water.”
It is believed she spun off the road and flew through the air before hitting a couple of trees and rolling several times down the steep embankment.
This is an amazing story of survival and will, but I must confess I get chills just thinking about the terrible moments she must have gone through and the horrific thoughts that must have crossed her mind while she was trapped in her upside-down car.