Rescue prompts sheriff to order 911-call review

SEATTLE – King County Sheriff Sue Rahr has ordered a review of the 911 calls made about a woman who spent more than a week missing before search crews found her trapped in the wreckage of her sport utility vehicle.

Tanya Rider’s husband has voiced outrage that he had to fight to get authorities to launch a search for his wife.

Tom Rider said he asked the Sheriff’s Office last weekend to use cell phone technology to try to find his wife, but he was told she couldn’t be categorized as a missing person because she wasn’t a minor, suicidal or mentally ill.

Authorities found the Maple Valley woman after detecting the general location of her cell phone Thursday morning, then searching along Highway 169 near Renton, southeast of Seattle, the route she took home from work.

Rahr said her department is bombarded with missing-person reports, up to 700 a year, and that the vast majority involve people who fail to come home on time or “an adult who wants to leave on their own accord.”

“When you get a healthy adult woman who has access to a great deal of money and the ability to get away, that’s not going to raise a red flag,” Rahr told the Seattle Times.

Nevertheless, Rahr said she takes Tom Rider’s concerns seriously. “I want to know if he tried to report this and we made a mistake,” Rahr said. “If we made a mistake, we’re going to address that.”

Tanya Rider, 33, remained in critical condition Saturday at Harborview Medical Center, where she was being treated for kidney failure and other injuries.

Her kidneys failed because of toxins from a muscle injury and dehydration, Dr. Lisa McIntyre said at a hospital news conference Friday.

She is being treated with intravenous fluids, and though she’s sedated, her brain function is normal, she can move her arms and legs, and doctors are hopeful they’ll be able to remove the ventilator that is helping her breathe within a few days, McIntyre said.