The Incredible Survival Story of Tanya Rider: Missing for 8 Days
The police called Tanya a runaway — her husband knew better.
It was September 20, 2007, Tanya and her husband Tom Rider were working multiple jobs to buy a home. Tanya’s first job was at a supermarket in Maple Valley, Washington.
She had just completed a night shift at the supermarket. She got into her vehicle and headed home, hoping to catch a few hours of shut-eye before she began a shift at her second job.
Just a few minutes from the home she shared with her devoted husband Tom, Tanya fell asleep at the wheel. She was exhausted from keeping up with her hectic schedule and her body had decided to shut down. She veered off the road and descended into a 20-foot ravine.
When Tom had not heard from his wife, he became frantic and phoned the local police department to file a missing persons report. The operator refused to make a report, stating Tanya didn’t meet the requirements. She wasn’t at-risk or a minor.
According to ABC News, the operator stated to Tom, “She’s an adult, she can go where she wants and she does not have to tell you a thing.”
Tom refused to accept this, he knew his wife and it was uncharacteristic of her to go so long without coming home or at least contacting him
He began phoning the police station over and over, explaining the story from the beginning to each new operator he would speak with until one finally agreed to file a report.
When she came to, Tanya was hanging upside down in her blue Honda, trapped by the seatbelt, wedged into the steering wheel. She had broken several ribs and her left leg had gone completely numb.
She would notice her phone screen light up every now and then with Tom’s name on the display. She would scream out his name, but she could not reach far enough to answer his calls.
Her eyes kept closing, she was in and out of consciousness. She prayed the next time she opened her eyes, she would be safe in bed, next to Tom.
Finally, after much pleading, Tom was able to convince the authorities his wife was in trouble, and in dire need of help. But, first, they set their sights on him. Tom assured the authorities they needed no warrants, he allowed them to search their house and agreed to take a polygraph test.
The faster they ruled him out as a suspect, the faster they would find Tanya.
The investigators viewed video footage of Tanya in the supermarket parking lot getting into her vehicle and driving away. They knew it was her last seen-at location. They checked Tanya’s bank accounts, but they had been untouched. Next, the investigators traced Tanya’s cellphone signal to a tower on Highway 169, in Renton, a suburb of Seattle.
A full-ground search was executed.
Once Tom was able to persuade the authorities Tanya had not run away, it only took twenty minutes for them to find her.
It had been 8 days since Tanya had been trapped in the ravine. She was incredibly emaciated and dehydrated. She hallucinated reaching for her phone and calling 911, just for the operator to laugh at her and hang up.
Tanya knew she was dying and accepted it. Soon, the pain was fading and she was walking into a beautiful, sunny, meadow…
“She’s alive!” troopers yelled as they located the blue Honda at the bottom of the ravine. They cut through the roof of the vehicle and pulled Tanya out. She was airlifted to a nearby hospital. The rescue took 90 minutes.
At the hospital, Tanya was put into a medically-induced coma. Aside from several broken ribs, she suffered a broken collar bone, a dislocated shoulder, kidney damage, and a badly injured left leg that almost had to be amputated.
Tom received the news of Tanya’s rescue while he was taking the aforementioned polygraph test to prove he had nothing to do with his wife’s disappearance.
Tanya woke up to find her loving husband Tom beside her.
He had done everything in his power to find Tanya, from setting up a $25,000 reward, to hounding the authorities to take the case seriously, to taking a polygraph test.
He never gave up. He knew his wife and he followed his gut instinct.
Like Tom, Tanya is also a hero in this story. She survived eight days trapped in a ravine without food or water and lived to write a book about it.
A few years after the accident, Tanya released a book titled Missing Without A Trace: 8 Days of Horror to share her experience with others, and as a way to find closure stating she’s, “Moving forward…it’s the only way to move.”
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