A mysterious priest dressed in black showed up at the scene of a car crash in Missouri and prayed for a 19-year-old woman who was seriously injured and then disappeared leaving emergency workers and others baffled as to what happened, according to USA Today.
"I think it's a miracle," Raymond Reed, fire chief of New London, Mo., said. "I would say whether it was an angel that was sent to us in the form of a priest or a priest that became our angel, I don't know. Either way, I'm good with it."
Katie Lentz was driving from Quincy, Ill., to Jefferson City, Mo., when her Mercedes collided with another car. Lentz's car was smashed and rolled to a stop with the driver's side on the ground, according to USA Today.
A rescue crew worked for 45 minutes to get Lentz out of the vehicle; she was stuck between the steering wheel and her seat. At one point when it appeared as if she might not make it out Lentz asked that someone pray out loud, and then the priest showed up, according to the Huffington Post.
The priest was described as silver haired and in his 50s or 60s. No one at the scene recognized him or knew where he had come from as the road had been closed off, according to USA Today.
"This priest approached Katie and began to pray openly with her," Reed said. "He had a bottle of anointing oil with him and he used that."
Right after the priest finished praying the rescue workers were able to stand the car upright and remove Lentz. Lentz was taken to a hospital and has been upgraded from critical to serious condition. Lentz's mother posted on her Facebook page that her daughter suffered two broken femurs, a broken tibia and fibia, a broken wrist, nine broken ribs, a lacerated liver, a ruptured spleen and a bruised lung, according to USA Today.
Reed would like to be able to thank the priest but nobody knew who he was and strangely he doesn't appear in any of the photos taken at the scene of the accident.
"I have 69 photographs that were taken from minutes after the accident happened - bystanders, the extrications, our final cleanup - and he's not in them," Reed said. "All we want to do is thank him."
Lentz's mother told USA Today that her daughter will have to undergo two more surgeries but that things are looking up.
"She sustained a lot of injuries, however, her face is beautiful, her teeth are perfect, she is sunshine, and everyone who's contacted us - those emergency personnel, the Missouri State Patrol, the deputies, the firemen - they are all saying the same thing," Lentz said. "She never cried, she never screamed, she would just say, 'pray for me and pray out loud.'"
