Tourists Stranded For 2 Weeks In Michigan's Upper Peninsula Survived On Girl Scout Cookies, Snow
CRISP POINT, Mich. (WWJ/AP) - Two sisters from out-of-state who were missing for nearly two weeks in Michigan survived on Girl Scout cookies while stuck in their snow-crippled SUV until state police discovered them Friday near Lake Superior in a remote part of the Upper Peninsula.
A pilot noticed a reflection off the Ford Explorer and landed the police helicopter on shore, finally ending the women's unexpected wilderness adventure. Leslie Roy, 52, and Lee Marie Wright, 56, were examined at a hospital and released. Despite being a "little weak" and shaken up, the women are said to be perfectly fine.
"It was sheer joy," Detective Sgt. Jeff Marker told The Associated Press, describing their reaction to the rescue. "It was almost disbelief that it was finally happening."
The women said in a statement Saturday that "through the days and nights while in the woods" cookies, love and other things helped them "to stay alive for 13 long days."
Roy of Valley, Nebraska, and Wright of Depew, Oklahoma, got stuck about three miles from Crisp Point Lighthouse in Luce County in the Upper Peninsula. They had been visiting relatives in Ishpeming and were planning to head south on April 11 toward Mackinaw City -- but they never made it to the hotel.
Instead, the sisters were trapped in snow on a little-used road with eight boxes of Girl Scout cookies purchased from relatives and a bag of cheese puffs, Marker said.
"They thought the road was plowed but it wasn't," he said.
There was no cellphone service in the area and their car eventually lost power, too. Roy and Wright wore layers of clothes to stay warm as overnight temperatures fell to the 20s, and they also turned snow into water.
"They heard crunching in the woods at night," Marker said. "They thought it was rescuers but no one came. Then they thought it was bears."
When the search began, police said the women had told others about possibly visiting waterfalls and casinos on their way to the Lower Peninsula.
TM and © Copyright 2015 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2015 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
