Missing Without A Trace (20 page)

Be Prepared

In a car, your survival odds are best when you’ve prepared for possible emergencies so you have a plan of action and basic tools to support your survival and rescue. With the introduction of technological innovations, motorists have a decisive advantage. Vehicle assistance programs like OnStar can alert authorities that a person needs help, and GPS units can guide you out of dangerous situations, help you figure out where you are if you are lost, and may be able to set off an alarm. But you never know when a high-tech gadget will malfunction or lose power, so low-tech and no-tech tools are also extremely important and valuable. A good, old-fashioned map, for example, could save your life.

Motorists should equip their cars with emergency kits, carried in the trunk at all times. Your emergency kit should include:

• A map of the area in which you are driving;

• A charged cell phone and mobile charger;

• Emergency supplies;

• Drinking water to last for several days;

• High-calorie snacks like candy bars, nuts, energy bars, etc.

• Spare blankets and extra clothing in cold weather; hat and long-sleeved lightweight clothing in hot weather;

• A standard first-aid kit;

• A flashlight with extra batteries;

• A candle, matches and flares.

Of course, your cell phone might be the most important survival tool you own. Every time you get in your vehicle, be sure your phone is well charged. Keep a mobile charger in your car in case your phone’s battery runs low.

While driving, be aware of your surroundings. Take note of public places and emergency call boxes along the roadside because, even if you have a cell phone, you might need to find a call box. If you drive out of range of cell service, your phone loses power, or your phone is lost or damaged in a crash, you will be grateful if you know which direction to walk for a call box or other aid.

If you get lost in a rough neighborhood, you are always safer if you remain inside your vehicle. Keep your cell phone handy and lock your doors. Try to retrace your path but also try to stay in populated, well lit areas where people—witnesses—can see you.

If your vehicle is disabled, remain inside, keep your car locked with the windows up, and use your cell phone to call for help. If you are in danger in an urban area or someone is threatening you, lay on the horn to attract attention and call 911; “smart phones” are equipped to transmit
digital information about your location so that a dispatcher can determine your location and send the police to help you. If for some reason your cell phone does not work, pretend it does. Look at the person who is threatening you and talk into your cell phone—whether it is connected to another person or not—while you pretend to describe the assailant to the police. Predators have no way to know if you really are on the phone or not, so this may deter them from victimizing you.

Surviving in Your Car

If you have an accident or become stranded in your vehicle on a highway, in a rural area, or in any other safe neighborhood, immediately turn on your hazard lights to alert other vehicles. If you are not in a remote area, a passing car or pedestrian will likely spot your flashing lights and come to your assistance within minutes or hours.

If you have a cell phone and are able to use it, call for help. If you are without a working phone and you are able to walk, set out to find an emergency call box along the road if these are available, or toward any public business. Leave your phone on but turn off the vibration mode, which uses more battery.

The weather—cold or hot—plays a major part in what to do if you are stranded. If you are stuck in your vehicle or outside during cold weather, you must be mindful of a number of physical ailments that can set in. Even when the temperature is above freezing, hypothermia is a risk. It can be fatal. If you do not treat hypothermia soon, your body may undergo cardiac arrest or you could go into shock. Therefore, before you drive in winter conditions, it is important that you prepare by stocking your emergency kit with additional materials specifically to help prevent hypothermia. Extra blankets and warm clothing are mandatory. Also, a candle and matches are compact and extremely helpful items for a wintertime emergency kit, as you can light the candle and warm the interior of your car.

On the other hand, if you are stranded in hot weather, your primary concern will be water and keeping yourself hydrated. Tanya Rider’s eight-day survival while trapped in her car is considered a miracle. Most people cannot survive more than about three days without water, though this depends on many factors. In any case, it is easy, especially in hot weather, to become dehydrated.

Keep in mind that, in addition to losing water via elimination (urinating)
and perspiration (sweating), our bodies lose water through respiration—breathing. If you understand how you can minimize your body’s water loss, you can increase your odds of surviving in the event that you are stranded without a water supply. To reduce your water loss:

• Try not to work up a sweat, even though you must try to get to safety;

• Try not to work so strenuously that you breathe heavily, because this increases your water loss through respiration;

• Try not to panic and breathe heavily and rapidly, as you will lose more water via increased respirations;

• Try to stay as cool as possible to minimize sweating;

• Try to keep your skin out of the sun, as sunburn makes the body lose water more rapidly;

• Avoid exposure to (hot or cold)
wind, which wicks moisture away from the body;

• Eat only what you need to keep up your strength. You are better off not eating much, since the body consumes water to digest food;

• Do not consume coffee, alcohol or other diuretics—if you happen to have them with you—because they cause the body to lose water.

What if you’re stranded without a car?

First, stay calm. Stressing about your situation isn’t going to make things any better. You’ll need a clear and level mind to take in your
surroundings and to consider your predicament logically and strategically. What do you see? What do you hear? What do you smell? Are you hurt? Is someone else hurt? Do you have anything that might help you—food, clothing, water, a cell phone?

After you consider your surroundings, make a plan. Contemplate whether you are better off staying put and awaiting help or physically moving out of the area. Either way, decide soon and act quickly. If you sustained any significant injuries, it is probably best to stay stationary and conserve your energy. However, if possible, move to the most visible location in your immediate area. If you believe that people are quite likely to be searching for you in the area, remain as visible as you can and stay in one place so that you are not a moving target. Unless you need to wear all of your clothes for warmth, put any bright garments or other possessions, such as a purse or backpack, out in a clearing or on a tree branch where they will be more visible to anyone who might be searching for you.

If you are caught outdoors for an extended period of time, you’ll need to consider a number of factors, such as lack of shelter, poisonous plants, limited food and water supply and the possible presence of dangerous wildlife. To survive, you’ll generally need to meet your body’s four basic needs: warmth, food, water and sleep.

Warmth
. Even if you are in an area with warm daytime weather, when night falls, so does the temperature. While it is light out, try to find a shelter—an abandoned building, cave, or even dense shrubbery that you can crawl under to find some protection from the elements, especially rain. If nothing like this is available, and since weather can be unpredictable, you may need to build some sort of shelter to shield you from the elements, especially if you are caught in a rain shower or snowstorm. If it looks like you will be out overnight, try to build a shelter using foliage from the terrain.

If you do not have enough warm clothing or blankets with you, or you cannot find a shelter, you can keep yourself warm if you know any of several ways to start a fire in the wilderness. It is a good idea to study and practice fire-building techniques before you find yourself in a life-or-death situation. Try to carry matches with you whenever you hike, travel through the country, or in any situation that could possibly leave you stranded out in the elements. It is a good idea to tightly wrap a book of matches in a plastic bag, squeezing out all the air you possibly can before you securely seal the bag with a rubber band. Then, wrap and secure the matches a second time, so that the packet is waterproof. If you are going to be away from civilization, carry this packet in your wallet, purse, backpack or pocket. Something as small and simple as a book of matches could save your life.

Water
. Water is essential for life and you can only survive without it for a matter of days. But drinking dirty water can cause a number of ailments (including diarrhea, which causes more loss of hydration) so you should think about different ways to locate water and to purify it for drinking and cooking. If it rains, use a large leaf to devise a bowl so you can catch rainwater, or lay a shirt out to soak up rain and then suck the water out of the shirt. Usually, at dusk, deer and other wild animals descend to their water supplies. If you study animal-made tracks in the earth, you might be able to see animal tracks that could lead you to a natural source of water.

Food
. You can survive without food for up to three weeks. However, if you are in the wilderness for an extended period of time, you will need the energy that food provides in order to work on your survival and rescue. Therefore, the most valuable thing you can do, in advance of any such emergency, is to become acquainted with the native food sources in the region in which you are traveling. Tossing a guidebook
about poisonous and edible plants into your purse or backpack could save your life. Nuts and berries can provide precious calories on which you can sustain yourself. You might try to devise a weapon or build a trap so that you can hunt or trap an animal for food. If productive, this food can sustain you for an extended period of time.

Sleep
. Of course, you will want to get back to your nice warm house and see your loved ones as soon as possible, but that does not mean you should travel all day and all night. Your body needs rest. Without it, you could suffer from exhaustion, which will only hinder your ability to get back to safety. Listen to your body and rest when you need to. If you do not have any sort of shelter in which to sleep, try to lean your back up against a large rock, hill, or other natural protuberance, if possible. This way, if an animal comes near you, it cannot approach you from behind.

Abduction

When a person is abducted—whether the victim is a child or an adult—they can do several things to increase their chances of rescue and survival. It is a good idea to review these tips periodically so that, if you are caught in such a situation, you can recall these suggestions and react quickly.

Of course, it would be best if you can avoid being captured in the first place. The following suggestions should always be on your mind so that, if you find yourself threatened, they are automatic reactions to the situation:

• If you are driving and someone is following you, drive to the nearest police department or hospital.

• If someone is approaching you, use your car horn to draw attention to yourself and to your potential abductor.

• Your greatest weapon is your voice. Make as much noise as possible.
However, do not yell anything about a weapon—even if the abductor is using one—and do not yell “Help me!” Instead, yell “Fire!” or “I am being abducted!”

• If you have any bulky objects with you, hold on tight and use these items to obstruct an abductor who is trying to shove you into a car. For example, if you have a bicycle, grip a bar on the bike and do not let go, the abductor cannot force you
and
your bicycle into the vehicle. If you have a purse or backpack that has straps, hold onto the bag and try to hook the straps onto the door or other obstacles in order to obstruct the abductor from wrestling you into the car.

If a predator succeeds in abducting you, you must do all you can to escape before you are taken to a private place. While you are being transported, look for opportunities to alert passersby that you are in trouble:

• Call attention to yourself and your potential abductor, even if you need to break the law. (These are FBI guidelines!) Drive the wrong way on a one-way road, run a red light, lightly tap your foot on the brake pedal so the brake lights blink on and off, subtly weave the car so you look like a drunk driver. Do anything you can to attract attention. If nothing works, in a final act of desperation, purposely crash your car in an occupied area. Your odds of surviving a low-speed crash are better than surviving an abduction.

• If you are imprisoned in the trunk of a car, unplug the wiring to the rear lights or punch out the plastic cover on the car’s lights and stick your arm out of the trunk.

• Create a trail by dropping as much evidence as you possibly can. Drop pieces of clothing or personal belongings. If you can pull out and drop pieces of your hair, search dogs might be able to pick up on these; this has been successful for some in the past. Even spit or blood can be helpful. If you are menstruating, leave pieces of soiled Kotex or
a used tampon to be found. Any personal items, jewelry or DNA is potentially helpful.

• Grab anything you can off the attacker, including jewelry.

• If you break free from your abductor, run in a zig-zag pattern. Turn a corner if you can. If you are in a city area with buildings, try to turn a corner and, as quickly as possible, look for a door into a building.

Deciding whether to fight or not is a personal decision; no one should ever be criticized for deciding not to fight. However, if you decide to fight, you must fight with the intention of escaping, harming and/or killing your abductor. Anything less than a fully committed intention and effort will backfire, increasing the odds that you will be injured or killed. If you choose to fight, you will only survive if you fight to win. Whether your attacker or abductor is male or female, target the eyes, head and groin, which are the most vulnerable areas.