Stars aligned during the days-long rescue mission of the missing Stoughton woman who was reportedly stuck in mud for at least three days at an Easton state park.
Easton and Stoughton emergency responders on Wednesday reflected on the “tremendous team effort” that rescued 31-year-old Emma Tetewsky from thick mud at Borderland State Park on Monday.
“This is the outcome that we had hoped for, and ultimately this is a great story for everyone that she’s safe and was rescued,” Stoughton Police Chief Donna McNamara told reporters outside the Easton Police Department.
Stoughton police invested a “significant amount of time” into the search, McNamara said, with her department and the Metropolitan Law Enforcement Council (METRO-LEC) Search and Rescue team starting to look for Tetewsky on June 28.
Tetewsky was reported missing by her family two days earlier.
The search culminated Monday when hikers at Borderland heard a woman screaming for help in a swamp-like area, unable to reach her. A trio of Easton police officers responded to the state park around 6 p.m., also hearing the woman’s screams.
Park rangers guided patrolmen Corey McLaughlin, Jason Wheeler and Andrew Stanton to an area near Leach Pond, where the three then waded 50 feet from the shore, through thick brush and swamp, to reach Tetewsky.
“We were about knee deep in mud,” McLaughlin said. “When we saw her lying there [in a fetal position] we did initially attempt to pick her up. The weight of her on top of our body weight sunk us further, so we then kind of had to change tactics and form a line where we eventually moved her out as a team without burying ourselves.”
At the time, the officers did not immediately identify the woman as Tetewsky, McLaughlin said. But after bringing her back to shore and a briefing, they learned she was the missing woman from Stoughton.
Easton police has responded to hikers lost and stuck in the mud at Borderland in the past, and it has an all-terrain vehicle mostly designated for the state park, Wheeler said.
“She just looked very dehydrated,” he said of Tetewsky’s appearance when they rescued her. “When you’ve been in the water for a long time you get pruny. It looked like she had been in the water for a long period of time.”
Tetewsky was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Brockton with serious — but not believed to be life-threatening — injuries.
McNamara said it’s crucial for hikers to have a way to contact 911 at all times. Officials noted that Tetewsky did not have a cellphone on her, but the Stoughton police chief credited the hikers that did and made prompt notification.
Several possible sightings had been reported that Stoughton police followed up on throughout the week, giving the department hope, McNamara said.
“It gave us an opportunity to continue looking for her,” she said. “Ultimately, it was the citizens and hikers who found her, so we are thankful to the community that came together along with the outside agencies to find her.”
