It is the sad truth that often times when a person goes missing that the police disregard the issue until a certain period of time has elapsed. Often they do not believe the report is credible, and claim the person had run away on their own terms. When they do believe the threat is credible, they often first turn their suspicion on those closest to them including spouses, family members, or friends. All of these facts were true in the case of Tanya Rider, however, law enforcement would soon realize their faults in their efforts to find her.
Tanya Rider was last seen leaving her job at a local department store in Bellevue, Washington on September 19, 2007. She figured she would have a few hours to sleep before beginning her shift at her second job the next morning. Tanya and her husband were both working two jobs at the time in order to save up to build their own house. Because of these long shifts, Tanya and her husband often did not see each other for days on end. After receiving calls about missed shifts, her husband tried to contact her many times and failed each time. It was at this time that he decided to inform local law enforcement that he believed his wife to be missing. He called the Bellevue Police Department at around 9:30 A.M on September 22, but the case was ultimately transferred to the sheriff’s department because the couple lived outside of Bellevue in a town called Maple Valley.
Tanya’s husband was informed by this department that his wife “could not be treated as a missing person because she was an adult who showed no signs of dementia or being suicidal.” When later questioned about this, law enforcement claimed that they receive up to 700 missing persons cases a year, a majority being people who simply failed to come home or had run away. When investigators traced her bank information they found activity in one of Tanya’s accounts, leading them to believe that she had disappeared voluntarily. However, her husband informed them that he was the one who used that account to buy gas. Even then, they believed that there was no need to worry about foul play in Tanya’s disappearance.
Her husband volunteered himself for a polygraph test in order to eliminate himself as a suspect and hopefully hurry up the investigation in hopes of finding his wife. This urged investigators to look further into Tanya’s bank account and eventually, after finding no activity, finally considered her to be missing. Her husband begged investigators to look into her cell phone records in an attempt to track her phone. Eventually, they used a technology called “pinging” to trace her phones last whereabouts. Their cell phone company, Verizon, used ping triangulation using three cell phone towers nearby to see where Tanya’s phone pinged off of last. They were able to track her phone about 8 miles near a phone tower on Highway 169 in Renton, Washington. Investigators searched the area on foot and were able to locate Tanya’s Honda in which she went missing.
Tanya was found alive after she had been missing for 8 whole days. She suffered from a broken collar bone, dislocated shoulder, kidney damage, and destroyed left leg. Her vehicle had tumbled off the side of the road while she was driving home alone that night after her shift had ended. Rescuers were forced to remove the roof of the car to retrieve Tanya, who was held up by nothing but her seatbelt. She does not remember much of what happened to her, but she vividly remembers waking up confused, frightened, and tired. She tried to move and escape, but was overcome with pain. Tanya attributes her survival to her determination to stay alive because she knew that any second her husband would be there searching for her. Before help arrived, Tanya struggled with going in and out of consciousness and even hallucinations until she was rescued. The next thing she knew, she was in a hospital bed with her husband by her side after many operations to keep her alive. It is a miracle that Tanya Rider was able to survive 8 whole days alone, stuck at the bottom of a hill. It is important to note that her suffering would have been cut short if law enforcement had listened to her husband’s concerns. The Rider’s ultimately sued local law enforcement for their negligence and Tanya even wrote a book about her experience.
Pictured Below(Left to Right, Top to Bottom): Tanya Rider, https://abcnews.go.com/US/tanya-rider-trapped-days-car-writes-book/story?id=12682635: Tanya's husband, https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/rescued-woman-recovering-husband-angry-with-sheriffs-response/: Rescuers after finding Tanya's car, https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/29/us/29missing.html: The outside of Tanya's car after being found, https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/last-phone-call-steered-search/: The inside of Tanya's car after being found, https://www.chron.com/news/nation-world/article/Condition-of-woman-found-in-trapped-car-improves-1829746.php: The book written by Tanya about her experience, https://www.amazon.com/Lost-plain-sight-Tanya-rider/dp/1452832978.
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