Woman Survives 8 Days in Wrecked Car

Sept. 28, 2007 — -- Tanya Rider, a Washington State woman, remains in critical condition in a Seattle hospital after she was found Thursday in a gully where she had laid trapped inside her overturned car for eight days.

Her relieved husband told "Good Morning America" that red tape and reluctance by police delayed the start of a full-scale search.

Rider, 33, was last seen leaving her job at a grocery store Sept. 19, but authorities said her husband did not alert police until four days after she was missing.

Tom Rider said today on "Good Morning America" that that wasn't the case.

"That's incorrect," he said. "The first Kings County [911]operator I called refused to take the report because [they said], 'She's an adult and can go where she wants.' Even though I was telling them that something's wrong, this is not her."

Rider's husband also said he had cooperated fully with the police — allowing them to search his house, vehicle and his computer for any evidence.

Meanwhile, detectives were able to narrow their search after roughly pinpointing Rider's cell phone signal. They eventually spotted her car in some matted brush along the road she routinely traveled to and from work.

Ironically, the good news came just as Tom Rider was sitting down with authorities to take a polygraph test. He said he agreed to the test so he could be eliminated as a suspect as fast as possible.

"I wanted to make sure they weren't focused on me, and they were looking for Tanya," he told "GMA."

King's County sheriff's spokesperson Deputy Rodney Chinnick told The Associated Press that while it's been a "heart-wrenching experience" for the Rider family, they followed procedures in this case.

"It's not like we didn't take him seriously," Chinnick said, but mounting a search after a person is missing for one day is not practical. "We don't take every missing person report on adults...If we did, we'd be doing nothing but going after missing person reports."

The desperate search for Tanya Rider ended Thursday along a rural highway in Washington state.