Marion woman rescued after

29-hour ordeal

The Daily Inter Lake

A 53-year-old rural Marion woman who became disoriented in heavy fog spent 29 hours in the woods and was approached by wolves before she was rescued Thursday morning.

Elizabeth Dacus was wearing only a T-shirt, pants and tennis shoes when she stepped outside her home at about 2 a.m. Wednesday off Upper Lost Prairie Road. She had heard animals fighting nearby and went to check on what she thought were a couple of brawling cats.

"She has no electricity, no lights, and in the dense fog she got lost," said Jordan White, Flathead Search and Rescue coordinator. "She walked in the wrong direction."

During the first night and next day and night, Dacus walked an estimated five miles, climbing 1,000 feet in elevation. She crossed a mountain ridge and walked around two peaks as she tried to find her way home. She was about a mile from her house when, at 7:10 a.m. Thursday, search dog Panzer and its handler, Janet Yatchak, found Dacus under a tree.

"She was conscious and coherent. She knew she was in bad shape," White said. "She was extremely hypothermic and she'd fallen down several times as she'd been walking. Her feet were completely white and she couldn't move her legs."

Rescuers transported Dacus in a snowmobile ambulance sled to a Marion ambulance, which took her to Kalispell Regional Medical Center. She was treated and released by midday Thursday. The ALERT helicopter was unable to fly in the fog.

"She's a fighter," White said. "It's a miracle she's still alive. This is the middle of nowhere. It doesn't get any more desolate."

DACUS HAD mild weather on her side during the ordeal, but freezing rain and snow flurries early Thursday morning challenged searchers. Wednesday's low temperature was 32 degrees, the National Weather Service said; the high was 38.

"The real interesting part was that as we were tracking her, we came across fresh wolf tracks and mountain lion tracks," Jordan said. "She told us that two wolves had approached her."

Dacus' 28-year-old son, Brodie Harrison, lives at the home but had no idea what had happened to his mother. He didn't know what she was wearing.

"He looked for her Wednesday morning and followed tracks for a quarter mile until he reached the road [Upper Lost Prairie Road]," White said.

They have a friend who lives near the jump center at Sky Dive Lost Prairie, so Harrison wondered whether she'd gone there. When she didn't turn up by evening, he drove to a neighbor's house to call the Flathead County Sheriff's Office. White and a patrol sergeant drove to the remote home to determine whether a search was warranted.

"It seemed odd that she'd take off on foot," White said. "I tracked her and I figured if I could find she'd walked away, I'd call out Search and Rescue."

White followed Dacus' tracks for three-quarters of a mile and knew then that a full-scale search would be needed. He called in a tracking team, snowmobiles and search dog.

The team - seven searchers and White - spent the night looking in remote terrain.

"They started at midnight and searched for seven straight hours through freezing rain and dense fog, then snow flurries," White said. "The snow was covering the tracks, but when they got a half-mile from her, the dog took us straight to her."

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com