Lynn and Lily Groesbeck
Four police officers say they will be forever haunted by the sound of a mysterious female voice calling out for “help” that led them to a car wreck in which they found a young mother lying dead on the front seat and an 18 month-old daughter still alive in her car seat.
Deseret News is reporting on the dramatic rescue of little Lily Groesback who was found strapped into her car seat and hanging upside down in 40 degree water in the back of her mother’s wrecked car.
Officer Jared Warner of the Spanish Fork Police Department was the first on the scene, followed by three other officers who all say they heard the same thing – a woman’s voice calling for help, which led them to the wreck.
The voice, calling “help me! help me!” was clearly coming from inside the car, yet when the officers managed to flip over the upended car, they found 25 year-old Lynn Jennifer “Jenny” Groesbeck lying dead on the front seat. The only other person in the car was her baby daughter, Lily, who had been hanging upside down in her car seat for at least 14 hours and appeared to be dead also.
“My initial instinct was that she was dead,” said Officer Bryan Dewitt. “When we were able to cut her out, pass her out, the first thing I saw was her eyes fluttering. So it was kind of a positive sign of life for me, at least. But I knew she wasn’t out of harm’s way, either.”
The officers passed the little girl up the embankment and into the waiting arms of firefighter Paul Taultomadakis who hurried her into a waiting ambulance.
“I ended up with the child in my arms and I just ran up the hill and into the ambulance and we drove off, started CPR and anything we could do to just save her,” Taultomadakis said.
Lily is currently in critical condition, but is said to be improving.
Authorities believe the accident occurred late Friday evening as Groesbeck was driving home after visiting her parents in nearby Salem, Utah. They do not know what caused the crash because there were no skid marks or signs of mechanical failure in the car that hit a cement barrier on a bridge and careened into the river below.
They do not suspect drugs or alcohol to have been a factor but are waiting for the results of toxicology tests to be sure. Otherwise, they suspect Groesbeck might have been tired or distracted at the moment of the crash.
Once the officers settled down after the rescue, they began to wonder about the voice that led them to the scene.
Officer Tyler Beddoes, said there is no question in any of their minds that they heard a voice calling for help that seemed to be coming from inside the car even though Lynn and Lily Groesbeck were the only people in the car.
“It wasn’t just something that was just in our heads. To me it was plain as day cause I remember hearing a voice,” Beddoes said. “I think it was Dewitt who said, ‘We’re trying. We’re trying our best to get in there.’ How do you explain that? I don’t know,” he said.
“We’ve gotten together and just talk about it and all four of us can swear that we heard somebody inside the car saying, ‘Help,’” said Officer Jared Warner.
They’ll probably never understand what happened that day, whose voice led them to the scene, or how an 18 month-old baby could survive for so long, in near freezing temperatures, while hanging upside down.
It’s a mystery they believe will never be solved – and a miracle they will never forget.
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