Amazingly, a woman who'd been lost in the woods was discovered three days later, still alive, buried in the snow.
Chrismas is an occasion of joy for many people—but it can also be a time of tragedy. For Donna Molnar’s family in Ancaster, Canada, the holiday marks the anniversary of her mother’s death, and her father-in-law passed away on December 22nd.
So when 55-year-old Donna herself went missing the Friday before Christmas, her family began to feel like they were cursed by the holiday season. After search teams had scoured the area for Molnar with no success, her family was sure that whenever happened, it couldn’t end well. The temperature was below 5 degrees Farenheit, and rescue teams held out little hope of finding the woman alive.
But that Monday, a volunteer search crew member’s dog, Ace, began sniffing around a snowy field, excited by a scent he’d caught. The dog’s owner, Ray Lau, followed Ace to the spot he was exploring, and saw a woman’s face and hands, nearly covered with snow. Lau was sure that she had frozen to death—but amazingly, she began to mumble to him. She had survived for three days, trapped beneath the snow.
“Never even come close to something that was this unlikely. It really is incredible how she survived it,” Staff Sergeant Mark Cox told the Globe and Mail. “The only suggestion I have is that the fact she was hunkered down in the snow so deeply may have had an insulating effect, but I’m still shocked,”
Although Molnar is suffering from hypothermia and frostbite, she is predicted to make a full recovery.
And her savior, Ace, was in for a Christmas treat, too: “He’s earned a T-bone, and, well, I won’t give him beer, but if he did want it, he could have it,” said Lau.