For nearly 15 hours, unable to move, unable to speak and alone in the woods, Yesenia Washburn held on.
"In this hot weather, by herself, completely freaked out," said her sister, Demaris Guadalupe. "I was in shock, I'm crying, I just couldn't believe it."
Washburn's sister and partner became concerned when she didn't come home to Pottstown Wednesday night, but police didn't have any reported accidents.
Just after midnight, right off Route 422, Marty Lechner and her husband Kim Pecal heard a loud thud.
"It was more like a pow pow pow," Kim said. "I came out, I looked I didn't see anything."
They figured it was truck traffic. It wasn't until Thursday afternoon, when Pecal came home from work, that he noticed the sign at the foot of his driveway was missing. He followed the smashed up pieces right into the woods.
"He started yelling, 'I found a body,'" Marty said.
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It was Washburn, who was in and out coherency, but alive. Because her jaw was broken, she had not been able to yell for help.
"The police officer said she may have been crawling, pushing her weight cause her legs didn't work," Guadalupe said.
Police think Washburn's car may have been rear-ended, causing her to veer off the road and into the woods, where she was thrown from the car. Washburn's family members are grateful that Pecal and his wife found her when they did.
"She's a fighter," her sister said. "She not going to give up."
