By Leila Merrill
PARADISE VALLEY, Mont. — An 80-year-old Paradise Valley woman who had been missing for two days after crashing her car crawled up a steep embankment and flagged down a passing car last Thursday.
A Paradise Valley Fire Department crew of volunteer firefighters and an EMT responded, according to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.
“It was so unbelievable,” said Firefighter James Tiscione.
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A Missing Endangered Person Advisory was issued for her at about 12:30 p.m. Thursday by the Montana Department of Justice and Park County Sheriff’s Office. It said that Ali Bakker did not have a cellphone, had recently suffered a fracture and had been taking pain medications.
She was found six hours later.
Bakker had stayed with her car after the crash. The Chronicle was unclear as to whether she lost consciousness, but on Thursday, she made her way up the steep embankment with her cane.
After she got the attention of people in a passing car, a passenger called 911.
“It was quite remarkable for an 80-year-old woman who had been [missing] for two days without water, food or heat and it appeared she crawled all the way up the hill with her cane,” said Phillip Hoag, the EMT who responded on Thursday.
Bakker complained of neck and back pain and had a bruised eye, Tiscione said. When the crew first arrived, she was lying on the ground.
Bakker was transported in an ambulance to Livingston HealthCare, Park County Undersheriff Clay Herbst said.