A phone app led a desperate mother to her daughter, who had been trapped in the wreckage of her car for 7 hours
A teenage girl went missing but an iPhone app led her mother to a ravine.
As Catrina Cramer Alexander was driving her car searching for her 17-year-old daughter, Macy Smith, who had missed curfew and wasn’t answering her phone, she was lead to a road near Pilot Mountain in North Carolina. Catrina followed the pulsating blue dot from the iPhone app that was showing her daughter’s location. Then, suddenly something caught her eye: it was a set of tire tracks leading off the street.
“That’s all I might see,” Catrina told WFMY.
However, the app wasn’t flawed. Macy was there but hidden from view. She was still alive but trapped in the wreckage of her car.
“Having that location, if we didn’t have that, we might have never recognized where to look,”
“I’m certain that that’s what saved her life,” Catrina told WXII.
On June 7, Macy went out for a drive to meet a friend, WXII reported. However, while on the way, Macy had a car accident, which landed her into a ravine where she got stuck. One day after the accident she wrote a Facebook post sharing what had happened to her.
“The first hour, I was frantic,” “I was looking for ways to get out. I was thinking of just different things I could do.” she told WFMY.
Macy immediately started searching for her phone while many questions were going through her mind. What if no one would find her? What if there were issues with her phone, preventing anyone from locating her? But the phone was nowhere in sight and the only thing she could reach for was her Bible.
The second I laid my hand on that Bible, I knew it was God telling me that it was all in his hands and it was happening for a reason, and that I would be okay,” she said.
While waiting to be rescued, Macy saw 28 cars drive by, but no one seemed to notice her.
She then heard car number 29 approach, but this time it stopped and out came her stepfather and her brother.
“I knew they were going to show up and I’m so thankful for my family and we’re such a tight family that I knew that I wasn’t going to be there the whole night without them looking for me,” she said.
Macy’s family had a gut feeling that something was wrong when she was late to come home and texts or calls went unanswered, her mother told WFMY.
“The lack of response was out of character for her,” she said.
By using the Find My Friends app, Catrina was able to pinpoint Macy’s location, thanks to the apps function which allows people to share their locations with each other.
“My daughter is in a ditch, in a ravine,” Catrina could be heard breathlessly saying in a recording of a 911 call published by WFMY.
While she was stuck on her own, Macy told WXII she did not cry. When her stepfather reached for her and they held hands through the car’s sunroof, however, she got overwhelmed by her emotions.
“I couldn’t hold it in anymore because of the feeling of relief and knowing that I don’t even deserve to be alive,” she said. “It’s unreal that I survived that crash.”
Macy left the car with a fractured neck, as well as nerve damage to her left arm, which was stuck under the car.
Photographs show a crushed white sedan missing its front windshield and a few windows.
Catrina wrote a Facebook post expressing her gratitude to everyone who supported her and the family through this heartbreaking journey.
Macy and her mother told WXII that the terrifying experience has shown them the importance of mobile tracking apps, while also encouraging others to do the same.
“I know it’s hard for teenagers to give up your privacy, but sneaking out and being places you don’t want your parents to know about is not worth being trapped under a car for seven hours,” Macy told ABC News.
How do you feel about Macy’s miracle saving? Do you believe more people should start using tracking apps? Share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.
