A race against cynicism

We all know the Scott Peterson-type stories. Of a spouse or a parent who reports their loved one dead or missing, and then the truth is slowly revealed that suggests, "Holy s--t, he's cheating/manic/in desperate need of some insurance money," and it's pretty sure that there was foul play. Such cases are sensational and macabre and as such get a lot of play in the media. And maybe the criminology stats are there to back up our cynicism, I don't know.

But I do know that when someone you love is barely hanging onto life, and you have to submit to house searches and polygraph tests just so the police will actually look for him/her, there are some serious problems:

SEATTLE – A woman who spent eight days trapped in a wrecked vehicle has severe injuries, but her brain function is normal and she can move her arms and legs, her physician said today.

Tanya Rider, 33, was found alive but dehydrated at the bottom of a steep ravine in suburban Maple Valley on Thursday, more than a week after she failed to return home from work ...

Rider's kidneys failed because of toxins from a muscle injury in the crash and dehydration. She was sedated, on a ventilator and being treated with intravenous fluids.

Rider broke her collar bone and dislocated her shoulder in the accident and has pressure sores from the days of being held by the seat belt, probably upside down, the doctor said. Her caregivers were not yet sure of the extent of a leg injury but McIntyre said they were hopeful it would not have to be amputated.

She said Rider was probably alive because she was young and healthy and was wearing a seat belt.

"She's a fighter, obviously," said Rider's husband, Tom. "She fought to stay alive in the car and she's fighting now."

Tom Rider said he was frustrated by the red tape he had to fight to get authorities to launch a search for his wife more than a week after she disappeared ...

Tanya Rider left work at a Fred Meyer grocery store in Bellevue on Sept. 19 but never made it home. Tom Rider said that when he couldn't reach her, he called Bellevue police to report her missing ...

"I basically hounded them until they started a case and then, of course, I was the first focal point, so I tried to get myself out of the way as quickly as possible. I let them search the house. I told them they didn't have to have a warrant for anything, just ask," he said.

Thursday morning, detectives asked him to come in to sign for a search of phone records. They also asked him to take a polygraph test.

"By the time he was done explaining the polygraph test to me, the detective burst into the room with a cellphone map that had a circle on it," he said ...

"I know there were delays (in finding her) because of red tape," Tom Rider said ...

Authorities said they followed procedure in the case.

"It's not that we didn't take him seriously," Deputy Rodney Chinnick said. "We don't take every missing person report on adults. ... If we did, we'd be doing nothing but going after missing person reports."