A Utah mother has died but her baby is miraculously alive after they both spent 13 hours in an upside-down car in a Utah river, ABC News reported.
The 18-month-old girl is currently in critical but stable condition after rescuers pulled her from the flipped car partially submerged in a river in Spanish Fork, Ut. Saturday, public safety officials told the station.
Rescuers risked hypothermia as they lifted the car on its side in the freezing water, where they found the baby in back seat. Her 25-year-old mother was found dead in the driver's seat.
"The baby was in a car seat in the backseat on the passenger side," Lieutenant Cory Slaymaker of the Spanish Fork Police Department, told ABC News. "The vehicle was on its top, so the car seat could have been out of the water.
"The car was on the embankment, so I don't know how much water was getting into the car," he added.
Investigators believe the mother, identified as Lynn Jennifer Groesbeck, and child were in the car for at least 13 hours before they were found by someone fishing in the Spanish Fork River at around 12:30 p.m. Saturday, the Daily Herald reported.
At around 10:30 p.m. Friday, a Spanish Fork resident said he thought he heard a crash and came outside but "didn't see anything," public safety officials told ABC News.
Officials said Groesbeck could have struck a cement barrier on a bridge, but the cause of the crash is still under investigation.
Her daughter is being treated at Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City, according to the Daily Herald.
