Rescued woman recovering; husband angry with sheriff's response

A Maple Valley woman, rescued after spending more than a week trapped inside her wrecked car, is receiving treatment for her kidneys and a dislocated shoulder. But "she's not out of the woods yet," her doctor said this morning.

"She at least doesn't have any significant internal injuries or brain injuries," said Dr. Lisa McIntyre, a physician at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where Tanya Rider was rushed Thursday afternoon.

Tom Rider, Tanya's husband, said he is furious at the King County Sheriff's Office for not doing more to look for his wife, who disappeared Sept. 19.

Rider, 39, said that he was told by the Sheriff's Office that his wife did not qualify for an "all-out search" because she was neither a minor nor suicidal.

"The policy that tied their hands nearly cost my wife her life," Rider said, arguing that the policy must be changed.

In a briefing with reporters, Rider said he has not yet talked to his wife. She has a breathing tube, he said, but he has held her hand.

She is sedated and in the intensive care unit, but her brain function is normal and she can move arms and legs, McIntyre said. The hospital staff is "flushing" her kidneys to keep them from failing. She also suffered a gash above her eyebrow.

McIntyre said she is not surprised that she survived eight days in the car, based upon Rider's age, her good health and the fact that she was wearing a seatbelt.

Tanya Rider, 33, disappeared on her way home from work and wasn't found until about 2 p.m. Thursday, when sheriff's detectives traced her cellphone signal to a tower on Highway 169 near Renton. Troopers searched the road and discovered Rider's blue Honda Element 20 feet down a steep ravine with a barely conscious Rider trapped inside.

On Thursday afternoon, it took rescue crews 1 ½ hours to reach Rider through thick blackberry bushes and rescue her by cutting off the Element's roof. She was airlifted to the Seattle trauma center.

Rider was on her way home from work at a Fred Meyer in Bellevue when she apparently drove off the highway and into the ravine.

Her husband was at the Sheriff's Office taking a polygraph test when he heard the news that his wife had been found, and he joined her at the hospital.

In addition to her kidney failure, Rider said his wife was being treated for extensive sores from lying in the same position for a week and nearly had to have a leg amputated.

"All I know is that she's here and she's alive, and that in itself is a miracle," he told CNN. "She's alive after eight days. If God was going to take her, he would have taken her before that."

Rider's family reported her missing Sunday, and Tom Rider later offered a $25,000 reward for any information leading to his wife's return.

Bellevue police took an initial missing person's report right away, but when they found video of Tanya Rider getting into her car after work, they told her husband the case was out of their jurisdiction and he should notify King County, he said.

Tom Rider said he tried that, but "the first operator I talked to on the first day I tried to report it flat denied to start a missing persons report because she didn't meet the criteria," he said.

"I basically hounded them until they started a case and then, of course, I was the first focal point, so I tried to get myself out of the way as quickly as possible. I let them search the house. I told them they didn't have to have a warrant for anything, just ask," he said.

Initially detectives in the Sheriff's Office suspected Tanya Rider had run away or was the victim of a crime, State Patrol Trooper Jeff Merrill said. After she was reported missing, detectives noticed activity on one of Rider's bank accounts and assumed she was still alive.

Later detectives discovered that the activity was from one of her husband's credit cards. When they realized Rider hadn't been using the account, they looked for her cellphone signal, Merrill said.

Detectives then traced her cellphone by linking it to a phone tower within five miles of where she was found. Investigators "did an intense ground search and located the car off the roadway," Merrill said.

"We didn't have any idea that this was a traffic accident ... we thought she was out driving around," Merrill said. "When it [her vehicle] passed through all the brush, it all closed up behind her. ... There have been thousands of people driving on that road in the last week. Nobody saw any signs there was a car down there."

State Patrol Sgt. Dave Divis said Rider responded when rescuers called her name.

"We have a lot of unanswered questions right now," Merrill said. "It's fortunate she was found. Probably had it been any longer, she might not have survived."

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com