Woman says she wandered through tunnels for 3weeks
She had been clean for a few months while living with her mum. But she had a relapse in early March, leaving a note for her mum that she was sorry and needed to leave to go find herself.
The following day she called her mum, asking for US$50. No, the mother said. And then the 43-year-old addict disappeared.
That was until Wednesday when a passer-by who had just parked her car in Delray Beach, Florida, heard the woman calling from a storm drain below. The woman trapped below told a surprising story: She said she had been underground – wandering tunnels – for three weeks.
Days later, the city still was looking into the mystery of how the woman got there. Was she really trapped in the drainage system for so long? And if she was, how’d she even survive? Calling it an ‘‘only-in-florida’’ story, Delray Beach mayor Shelly Petrolia planned to push for answers.
‘‘I know they are trying to find out if the story does match,’’ Petrolia said. ‘‘The story is so bizarre. But people should know better than to go into the sewer system. This is not the action of a rational person.’’ Ted White, a spokesman for the Delray Beach Police Department, added, ‘‘Those are the questions we have.’’ The woman’s family is thankful that the passer-by found her and that emergency workers saved her, a family friend, Michael Hahn, said yesterday. The woman, who was released from the hospital on Wednesday, is now with her mother recuperating. ‘‘Obviously the victim has been through a very traumatic situation and needs time to heal,’’ Hahn said.
The woman who was trapped in the drainage system has a history of mental health issues, drug addiction and making poor decisions when under the influence, according to a Delray Beach police report. The woman’s screams alarmed the passer-by who called 911.
‘‘There’s somebody stuck in a sewer over here!’’ the bystander told a dispatcher.
The circumstances were so unusual, the dispatcher had to double-check. ‘‘I’m sorry, there’s a . . . somebody’s stuck?’’ ‘‘There’s a lady stuck in a sewer! Yes, she cannot get out.’’
Rats, snakes, and garbage all end up in the storm drain. Firefighters showed up to pull the woman to safety. When the woman was pulled up, she was dirty and her hair was covered with leaves. She was unclothed and unable to stand.
The woman told police she was swimming in a canal in West Delray when she vanished on March 3. She says in a shallow part of the canal, she opened a door that led her to a series of tunnels.
According to a police report, the woman said the first tunnel led to another tunnel and then another. She said she eventually became lost and remained underground for the next three weeks. She said she ended up in the draiage ditch on Atlantic Ave by following the light. Then on Wednesday, the bystander finally heard her screaming for help, she said.
The woman told police she found an unopened bottle of ginger ale. What she ate, if she did at all, was not clear, White said.
‘‘I would like to know how she [survived] down there as for long as she says she was down there,’’ White said.
The Delray Beach police report described the woman as dehydrated but lucid. A mental health team was sent to Delray Beach Medical Centre to evaluate the woman, the report said. Neither the woman’s mother nor boyfriend could be reached for comment by the South Florida
Sun Sentinel.
Hahn said he and the woman’s mother believe the woman’s account of how she ended up in the storm drain.
He said the woman had nothing to eat the entire time she underground. The family has asked for privacy.
‘‘She’s recovering but she’s very weak at this point,’’ Hahn said. – TNS