One afternoon, a couple was driving along a lonely stretch of highway when, at a far distance, they saw a woman in the middle of the road, waving as though she was trying to get them to stop.
As they got closer, they could see that the woman had cuts and bruises on her face and arms. As they pulled to a stop, she came toward them, urgently explaining that she had been in an accident.
But, unlike the familiar trope of asking for a ride home, she says that her child is still trapped in the car.
It’s a modern evolution of the Vanishing Hitchhiker legend, spread around the internet in the late 1990s via chain email.
And, unlike most things you’ll read on the internet, it’s entirely true.
Photo: Jennifer Groesbeck’s car as it is being pulled from the Spanish Fork River in Utah after baby Lily’s rescue. (Source: KTSU | Fox13Now)
Additional Resources
- Mom dies, baby critical after car found in Spanish Fork River about 13 hours after crash by Carly Figueroa and Rebecca Green for Fox 13 Now (Salt Lake City)
- Toddler Lily Groesbeck Survived Car Crash When Rescuers Heard a Voice Cry ‘Help’ by David Moye at Huffington Post
- Report of a naked lady leads deputies to boy trapped in car from the Santa Cruz Sentinel via Newspapers.com (subscription required)
- Haunted Highway from SyFy’s Paranormal Witness, Season 1 Episode 2
Other Suggested Podcasts on this Story
- Episode 57: Second Chances from Astonishing Legends
Video Evidence
- Officer Beddoes’ Bodycam Footage of Lily Groesbeck’s Rescue (Warning: Emotionally intense footage.)
- Is this the voice of Jenny Groesbeck?
