Found alive: Kearns couple released from hospital after 10-day ordeal

CEDAR CITY — The Kearns couple who survived 10 days in a snow-covered remote area of southern Utah have been released from the hospital after an overnight stay.

At one point, Tom and Tamitha Garner admited that they didn't think they would make it.

At press conference Wednesday, they said they wrote wills and used a video camera to tape messages to their family, hoping that when their bodies were eventually found, their final words to their loved ones would be recovered.

But while prepared for the worst, the Garners weren't about to give up.

"My family is what kept me going," Tamitha Garner said Wednesday night. "Every thought was with my family. I had to get back home."

She said she kept thinking to herself, "Hold on one more day."

Seemingly against all odds, the Garners, from Kearns, were found Wednesday afternoon in remote Modena Canyon, about 60 miles west of Cedar City, by an Iron County road crew clearing a remote road into Beaver County. They had spent 10 days alone in extreme weather conditions with little food or water after their truck became stuck.

"I'm running, I'm screaming, I'm jumping up and down," was Tamitha Garner's reaction when she saw the big yellow road truck. "It was wonderful."

Perhaps most surprising of all, the Garners and their dog were not only found alive, but in good condition.

"I thought. 'No way,"' Iron County Sheriff Mark Gower said of his initial reaction when he heard the news. "I asked (dispatchers) 'What condition are they in?' I kept saying, 'No way, no way."'

Dr. Darrell Wilson at Cedar City's Valley View Medical Center said Wednesday that the Garners were in "surprisingly good condition considering the trial they went through and the difficult experience they had out in the wilderness."

"I said, 'Wow, are these really the ones that were out there that long?"' he said.

Both were dehydrated and suffered some blisters, minor frostbite on their fingers and toes, as well as some muscle breakdown, Wilson said. But neither was expected to suffer long-term health damage. He noted that if all went well, both might be able to go home today or Friday.

The Garners said they saw the posted warning signs into the canyon. They were considering what to do when they saw an elderly woman in a car come driving down the road.

"I thought, 'How bad could it be?"' Tom Garner said.

But the couple went farther than the woman had and found themselves and their dog, Medusa, stuck in the snow.

Tamitha Garner said the couple at first stayed in their truck. They passed the time by talking and playing games on Tom's iPod. They were careful to ration their food supply and water and only turned on their truck occasionally to stay warm.