LENOIR
Amber Pennell was trapped for five days in her mangled pickup, hidden under vines in a steep ravine in northwestern North Carolina only 150 feet away from a four-lane highway.
Seriously injured and without food and water, she might have died if rescuer Tommy Courtner hadn't spotted tire tracks and damaged foliage by the side of the road Monday.
When he stepped farther down into the ravine to investigate, he saw part of a white truck obscured by kudzu. Courtner called out, and Pennell raised her hand from the wreckage.
By Wednesday Pennell, a 21-year-old mother, was recovering in a hospital from a fractured skull and limbs, but was expected to recover fully with rehabilitation.
Pennell went missing on the night of Aug. 20 after stopping at a Wal-Mart on her way home from work at a barbecue restaurant in Lenoir in Caldwell County. The weather was clear at the time, and the cause of the wreck is being investigated.
She picked up some Hot Pockets and drinks at the store, but she couldn't reach them after the wreck because her legs were pinned. She did reach out to a set of invitations for her daughter's forthcoming third birthday party.
"It looked like she had been reaching for them at some point," said Keith Davenport, Caldwell County's emergency-service manager. "I guess when you're watching the sun rise and set, you think about things like that."
Bloodied and injured, she was alert. Davenport said that the first thing Pennell asked about was her children, Gracelyn, 2, and Cameron, 1. Gracelyn will turn 3 on Friday.
A family friend said that her husband waited by the roadside as the rescuers pulled her out of the ravine.
"I love them so much. They did the best job. They didn't give up," Mitchell Pennell told reporters Monday night. "I'm so thankful my baby's alive."
The discovery was emotional for the whole town.
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