Woman Who Crashed Car Found 17 Days Later

Jamie Tull, 33, crashed her car July 17
By Linda Hervieux,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 5, 2017 8:40 AM CDT
Missing for 17 Days, Woman Survived by Eating Bugs
Rescuers were about to scale back searching for Jamie Tull in central California's desolate ranching territory.   (Fox40)

A former kindergarten teacher last heard from more than two weeks ago has been found in Central California, and she told authorities she survived by eating two grasshoppers and a fly and drinking water from a dirty cattle trough, the AP reports. Rescuers who found Jamie Tull emaciated, dehydrated, and severely sunburned on Friday morning called it a "miracle" they spotted the 33-year-old lying in a field, too weak to walk. "That girl has a will to live," Robert Carpenter tells the Modesto Bee. "Anyone who can survive out here for 17 days is an amazing gal, to me." Friends and family had been searching for the Modesto woman in a desolate cattle ranching area near Le Grand since her car was found in a ditch; she called her husband while driving on July 17 and then reportedly crashed. Her car was found shortly after.

Searchers were set to scale back the effort when they spotted her less than a mile from the crash site in tall grass. Lynn Garber was one of the searchers who found Tull, and says Tull told them she had been praying throughout her ordeal and was glad to be found. Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke tells things differently, saying Tull asked for food and water but then told searchers to leave her. "She hunkered down. She didn't want to be found," says Warnke. Tull's family tells Fox40 she suffers from bipolar disorder but stopped taking her medication at the urging of a pastor and his wife, who associated the pills with demons. Tull is recovering at a burn unit at a Fresno hospital. (Dramatic rescue saves stranded cable car passengers.)

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