BURLEY, Idaho (AP) - A Texas woman may have spent up to a week in a rental car stuck in an Idaho dairy wastewater pond after taking a wrong turn while looking for a hotel in Burley, authorities said.
Lynn S. Keesler, 61, of Houston, was evaluated by emergency medical technicians but refused to go to the hospital, saying she just wanted "a warm bed and a bath," The Times-News reported Tuesday.
The Cassia County report said Keesler believed she had been stranded for three to five days, but the sheriff's log shows a deputy gave her directions to the hotels in Burley on Jan. 15. She walked to a nearby house for help on Jan. 22.
Keesler told deputies that after getting directions, she saw water by a dairy and thought it was the Snake River. She told deputies she tried to drive around the outside of the water but got stuck in the mud.
The first night she was stranded she flashed her headlights all night until the car's battery ran down. Keesler told officers she also honked the horn a couple times when the battery would power up enough.
She lived on peanut butter M&Ms and water and told officers she stayed in the car because she had been told not to leave her vehicle if she became stranded. Keesler finally went for help Sunday after the settling pond started filling with water.
The dairy's foreman told deputies that workers started filling the settling ponds on Friday. When deputies arrived, the ponds were full and the car wasn't visible.
Representatives from Enterprise Rent-A-Car told deputies Keesler had rented the vehicle on Dec. 8 and was supposed to return it on Jan. 5.