Crash victim survives freezing night outside

A Libby woman who endured freezing temperatures overnight after her vehicle slid off a steep embankment on a dirt road near Happy’s Inn was found alive Sunday morning, law-enforcement officials said.

Karen Schertel, 51, suffered hyperthermia, a dislocated hip and bruises, but is recovering well, family said.

Her husband, Ben Schertel, reported her missing Saturday night when she didn’t return home from her census job.

Lincoln County Sheriff’s deputies and family members spent the night searching up and down the network of roads in the Silver Butte area near Happy’s Inn but weren’t able to locate Schertel or the Jeep she was driving. David Thompson, of Search and Rescue joined the search at first light Sunday morning.

“We were trying to cover every road in that area that we could, and we were getting ready to expand our area” late Sunday morning, said Capt. Roby Bowe of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office.

Schertel was 50 vertical feet below a dirt road that branches off of McKillop Road about a half-mile from U.S. 2. Her Jeep was hidden in brush and trees several feet below her, according to her family, and a dislocated hip restricted her movement.

She heard sirens come and go Saturday night, Bowe said, but they came from emergency responders traveling to the fatal accident on U.S. 2 just miles away. She also heard vehicles drive by on McKillop Road, family members said, but they were too far away to hear her shouts for help.

Temperatures were in the 20s as she lay surrounded by snow shivering without a coat. She said she tried to use tree bark to provide cover.

Karen Schertel later told family and rescuers that she was going downhill when her vehicle began sliding off the icy road. She attempted to bail out of her car, but part of the Jeep hit her as it descended. 

Her nephew, Tim Schertel, and his brother-in-law began looking for her after 10 a.m. Sunday. They traveled off of McKillop Road onto what appeared to be an old logging trail because, as a census worker, Tim Schertel recalled, she was told to travel every road.

“I said it looks like someone came in and out of here, so I thought we’d go down and ask if someone saw a census lady,” he recalled.

They heard her faint shouts as they drove slowly with the windows down.

“She was in a T-shirt and jeans,” he recalled. “I was amazed she was alive.”

The men covered her in their shirts and Tim Schertel went for help.

“You couldn’t see her or the vehicle from the road,” he said. “I felt like I won the lottery. I couldn’t have driven more directly to her.”

Fisher River Valley Fire and Rescue provided immediate medical attention and the ALERT helicopter flew her to Kalispell Regional Medical Center.

Eric Schertel, her brother-in-law, said he believes the story is nothing short of miraculous.

“The first miracle is that the Jeep didn’t kill her,” he said. “The second miracle is that she survived the night, and the third is that she was found.”