After hearing screams, a good Samaritan encountered a naked woman stuck in a storm drain. The passerby quickly called authorities, but the story only got weirder from there.
Lyndsey Kennedy, a 43-year-old Florida woman, is lucky to be alive, thanks to the Delray Beach Fire Rescue and an unnamed good Samaritan, who heard her screams. According to The Blaze, Lyndsey was stuck in a Delray Beach, Florida storm drain just a few feet away from a busy Delray Beach thoroughfare when a passerby heard her cries for help on a Tuesday morning.
Thankfully, the good Samaritan was in her car with her windows down and heard Lyndsey’s screams. After investigating the source of the sound, she discovered a naked Lyndsey stuck in the storm drain and immediately called 911, alerting authorities. “There’s a lady stuck in a sewer, yes ma’am, she cannot get out. She’s screaming for help,” the passerby told the 911 operator. “She don’t have no clothes.”
First responders rushed to the scene, where they quickly realized the entrance was too small for an adult to fit through, according to authorities, meaning Lyndsey hadn’t just slipped into the sewer.
“Firefighters go to storm drain calls a lot,” Delray Beach Fire Rescue spokeswoman Dani Moschella said, explaining that the drain opening was likely too small for Kennedy to have squeezed into from the sidewalk. “We rescue ducklings and kittens and puppies, and this is the first time anybody can remember actually seeing a person down there.”
A grate was removed and a ladder and harness were utilized to lift Lyndsey out of the drain, which is about 8-feet deep. Shockingly, it was soon discovered that the woman was reported missing to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office by her boyfriend nearly three weeks before being found.
The incident, of course, has left many wondering how Lyndsey had gotten trapped in the storm drain and how she managed to survive for so long. Apparently, Lyndsey had gone for a swim in a canal near her boyfriend’s home and became curious when she saw a doorway, according to an incident report cited by the Miami Herald.
“While she was swimming, she came across a doorway near a shallow part of the canal. She stated she entered the doorway and noticed a tunnel,” the incident report read, according to the outlet. After noticing the tunnel, the woman decided to explore it.
That tunnel led to another “and so on until she became lost,” the Herald reported, adding, “The woman claims she was walking in the tunnels, lost, for about three weeks until she ‘saw some light’ and decided to sit there because she saw people walking by.”
After the rescue, Lyndsay was “dirty and disheveled” with several scrapes and was reportedly too weak to stand on her own without assistance. She was transported to a nearby hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, including dehydration, but no foul play was suspected.
“From the police department standpoint, we don’t believe there was any type of crime committed,” Delray Beach Police spokesperson Ted White explained. “It doesn’t feel like she was taken against her will. It appears this was done by her own free will,” White added. Even though investigators do not suspect any type of foul play, Lyndsey was still very fortunate, according to authorities.
“She was lucky,” Moschella told Newsweek. “I don’t know how much longer she would have been OK down there. The idea that somebody might be down there for any length of time is disturbing. It’s dirty, dangerous, there are snakes, rats, garbage, dirt and leaves, anything that’s on the street that washes into a sewer, and it smells terrible.”
Lyndsey’s mother said her daughter suffers from an undisclosed mental illness and has a history of drug use. She also told police that Lyndsey is known for “doing odd things and making bad decisions when she is high on drugs.” According to police, Lyndsey is a Methadone patient and she had her last dose the day before her disappearance.
Following her rescue, she underwent a mental health assessment, but the police report, which described Lyndsey Kennedy as “very lucid” when she was found, said she was not taken into protective custody because she did not meet the criteria under Florida’s Baker Act, the Daily Mail reported.
Regardless of one’s mental state, it’s never wise to go for a swim or explore unknown areas on your own. Lyndsey Kennedy found that out the hard way, and she is definitely lucky, to say the least. We shudder to think how this story could have ended if it weren’t for the good Samaritan, who was not only paying attention to her surroundings but was also willing to take time out of her day to get to the source of the cries she thankfully heard over the rush hour traffic. Lyndsey owes that woman her life.
