Woman Survives 8 Days in a Ravine

Original Airdate: 01/21/2011

Tanya Rider is talking about her eight terrifying days trapped in a wrecked car at the bottom of a ravine, badly injured with no food and no water.

A surveillance camera shows Rider leaving work at a department store outside Seattle. Minutes later, on an isolated stretch of road, her car plunged into a ravine.

Her husband Tom alerted police when failed to come home, but at first they did nothing.

On a recorded 911 Call;

Tom: I think that someone has done something to her.

Police officer: It's just that it doesn't meet the criteria for us to take a report.

Tom: What you're telling me is unless she turns up dead, you're not going to care.

Police officer: We don't go actively searching for missing people, sir. We don't go out looking for people that are missing.

Trapped in the wreckage, Rider could hear vehicles going past her, but no one could see her. She had a cell phone but it was inches out of reach from where she was pinned.

When police finally launched an all out search, her husband actually became a suspect. Tom was taking a polygraph test when he got the news that Rider had been found 8 days after the accident.

"My wife's alive! Barely," Tom says.

Police tracked Rider's location through her cell phone signal, something which could have been done on day one.

Rider was close to death with kidney failure and blood loss and body injuries. She has still not fully recovered.

"In life, it's not what life throws at you, it's how you deal with it. And I think you can take anything evil and make good out of it," says Rider.

Now Rider has written a book, Missing Without a Trace, hoping her story of survival will inspire others.

Rider's body became so cold that her metabolism slowed down which allowed her to stay alive.