Tom Rider was just sitting down to take a lie detector test concerning the eight-day-long disappearance of his wife when police discovered 33-year-old Tanya Rider inside her crumpled Honda Element at the bottom of a ravine.
Washington State police officers were tracking her route home that was normally taken from her job at Fred Meyer department store in a Seattle suburb. She was last seen September 19 leaving her place of employment.
Police found her car off Highway 169 where she had plunged into the ravine. Miraculously, she was still alive inside.
"She looks very pale, very dehydrated. She didn't have a lot of cuts but had difficulty breathing," said State Patrol spokesman Jeff Merrill.
"It's hard to say whether she has been there the entire time."
The car tumbled down 20 feet into the ravine and was covered beneath the heavy undergrowth and bushes. The car's roof had to be sliced off to rescue her. She was then airlifted to a nearby Seattle hospital.
Her husband said he had searched that stretch of highway several times since her disappearance, but never found any sign of her. He had offered a $25,000 reward for her return.
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