Mysterious Voice Calls Officers to Rescue Baby Trapped Inside Car

26 Aug

Lily Groesbeck is rescued from a car wreck in an icy Utah river after officers hear a strange voice alerting them to her presence.

Four police officers hurried to an overturned car in an icy river in Utah and all heard the same thing: a mysterious woman's voice calling "Help" from inside the car. When they reached the car, they found that the driver was dead, and her 18-month-old daughter, though alive, couldn't have been the one speaking.

Police Rescue Lily Groesback

Raw: Body-cam Footage of Utah Toddler Rescue.

Officer Jared Warner from the Spanish Fork Police Department was among the first responders to rescue little Lily Groesbeck. She was strapped into her car seat in the back of her mother’s car, which was hanging upside down in freezing water.

“We’ve talked about it, and all four of us are sure we heard someone inside the car calling ‘Help,’” Warner told Deseret News.

When they managed to flip the car over, they found a 25-year-old woman dead in the front seat and Lily unconscious in her car seat.

“The only people in there were the dead mother and the child,” Officer Bryan Dewitt explained.

Officer Tyler Beddoes added that they all clearly heard the voice, but have no explanation for it.

“It wasn’t just in our heads. To me, it was as clear as day. I remember hearing a voice,” Beddoes said. “I think it was Dewitt who said, ‘We’re trying. We’re trying our best to get in there.’ How do you explain that? I don’t know.”

No one knows how Lily managed to survive hanging upside down for almost 14 hours without food or water. The car was balanced on the bank and rocks, with icy water flowing just below Lily’s head through the broken windows. The temperatures were close to freezing all night and into the morning.

“It’s heartbreaking. Was she crying most of the night?” Beddoes, a 30-year-old father of two, wondered. “It’s a miracle. She was meant to be here.”

Police think the crash happened when Lily’s mother, 25-year-old Lynn Groesbeck, hit a cement barrier on a bridge and ended up in the river late Friday night. This was in Spanish Fork, about 50 miles south of Salt Lake City. She was driving home to Springville after visiting her parents in Salem, explained Spanish Fork police Lt. Matt Johnson. The exact cause of the crash is unknown. There were no skid marks or signs of mechanical failure.

Drugs and alcohol are not suspected, but toxicology tests are pending. Lt. Johnson suggested that maybe Lynn was tired or distracted, but nothing is being ruled out yet.

Beddoes said the family has expressed their gratitude to him and the other officers for saving Lily. Reflecting on that chaotic, cold day, Beddoes still finds it hard to believe that Lily survived. And he’s still puzzled by the voice they all heard coming from the car.

“We all heard the same thing,” Beddoes said. “We just can’t make sense of what we heard.”