Missing Alabama woman found trapped in crashed car 5 days after vanishing, cops say

An Alabama woman who went missing last week was found alive on Monday after surviving days trapped in her crashed car on the side of a highway, according to authorities.

Robin Fancher was last seen on April 17, but disappeared after she left her apartment in Headland around 10 a.m. to go to the post office, local police said. She was in a gold 2003 Mitsubishi Galant at the time.

Troopers said Fancher was found trapped in the Mitsubishi just after noon on Monday in a ditch near the Limestone Creek Bridge, with the car positioned in a way that made it difficult to spot from County Road 203 following the suspected crash several days ago, AL.com reports.

State law enforcement said Fancher’s family reported her missing on Saturday, the New York Daily News reports.

Rescuers “worked feverishly” to get Fancher out of the car, but the rescue took about 90 minutes because of how she and the car were stuck in the ditch, the Dothan Eagle reports.

“The main challenges were going to be where the car was and where the victim was pinned against the driver’s door,” Dothan Fire Battalion Chief Pete Webb said, WDHN reports. “It was off the road, and it was difficult to get the car to pull around her.”

A family member said Fancher was taken to a nearby hospital with multiple injuries, but is in stable condition, according to the Eagle.

The man who discovered the car crashed in the ditch said it was so hard to get to that all he could do was call 911, WDHN reports.

Webb told the TV station that the rescue was a collaborative effort.

“People were throwing ideas out there, and it was all to take care of her to get her out,” he told WDHN.

This story was originally published April 23, 2019 at 3:35 PM.