Hikers Hear Cries for Help, Find Missing Woman in Swamp

The search for a Massachusetts woman missing for a week has a happy ending after she was discovered alive, trapped in a swamp for what officials say may have been at least three days. Per a release, Emma Tetewsky, 31, was found Monday evening after hikers in Borderland State Park called 911, reporting they'd heard someone yelling for help. When cops and firefighters from Easton arrived, they could also hear the cries but couldn't see Tetewsky. They had to bring in ATVs to navigate the landscape, and rescuers had to slog through 50 feet of swampy muck to reach her. Tetewsky was "conscious and alert" when she was found, per a Stoughton Police Department post on Facebook Monday.

Boston.com reports that Tetewsky's family first put up a red flag that she was missing on June 26, and a couple of days later, police asked the public to help in the search, including by checking their own surveillance cameras and in their sheds and garages to see if there was any sign of her. Tetewsky, who officials say has a history of mental health struggles, had left her phone behind and didn't have a car, so they didn't think it was likely she'd left the area. The ensuing search involved the Massachusetts State Police, area PDs, and a consortium police search and rescue team, with drones, police dogs, boats, and aviation units all deployed to look for the missing woman.

Toni Ioannidis, one of the firefighters who helped rescue her, calls the entire ordeal "nerve-wracking." "We all get into this job because we like to help people, so it's always kind of gratifying to know that we help somebody out," Ioannidis tells WCVB. Tetewsky was brought to a hospital in Boston, where she's said to have serious injuries but is expected to recover. In its Facebook post, the Stoughton Police Department praised everyone who lent a hand. "There were so many agencies involved in the search for Emma over the last week," the police department notes in its online post, though it adds that "she could not have been located without the public's help." (More missing woman stories.)