It is an incredible tale with a miraculous ending.
Trevor Koenig knew something was wrong when his wife of 33 years didn’t come home on Monday evening.
“I thought something must have happened, maybe car trouble,” he said.
The Vernon man tried calling his wife Caroline on her phone but quickly realized she had forgotten it at home.
He knew he had to go looking for her.
“I just thought, you know what, this story doesn’t end with her being by herself,” he told Global News.
While Koenig had no idea where his wife went, what he did know is she would sometimes go for a drive along Highway 6 so that’s where he headed.
“I just drove 50 kilometres an hour with my high beams on close to the shoulder and watched the shoulder the whole way for any highway tracks,” he said.
After driving about 150 kilometres, he noticed tire tracks in the snow. Koenig got out of his vehicle and with flashlight in hand went to investigate. He couldn’t believe what he saw down the steep embankment.
“I saw a car pinned in a tree,” he said.
He immediately began making his way down to the vehicle about 20 metres below the road.
“I was afraid to look in the car, I thought my wife was dead in the car,” Koenig said.
But when he arrived at the mangled vehicle, he discovered it was empty.
He investigated further and discovered his wife hunched over a tree another 30 metres below.
“She wasn’t moving and I got in front of her and I lifted up her face and her eyes were just staring blank and I thought, ‘oh, I was too late, and then she blinked,” he said. “She thought she was dreaming, she asked if I was real.”
About 15 hours after the crash, Koenig was finally hoisted up to the roadway.
The rescue involved the Lumby Fire Department, B.C. Ambulance Paramedics, RCMP and Vernon Search and Rescue. Crews had to rappel down the embankment to bring Koenig to safety.
While all of the agencies played a role in Koenig’s rescue, it wouldn’t have been possible without her husband’s heroic efforts.
“It’s amazing he was led to that spot and to find her in the conditions that he was faced with,” Trevor Honigman with Vernon Search and Rescue said. “It’s a miracle, it really is.”
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