In the days after the lack of the rescue of motorhome Tiffany Slaton from the Sierra National Forest, what started as a heart -warming story of a woman who survived against all expectations, was tinted by a choir of online skeptics who question the walker and her family.
Although many have praised the tenacity of the 28-year-old Georgia-Vrouw, others have expressed doubts about the truthfulness of her shocking survival story and have criticized the fundraising motives of her family.
Slaton was on his way to a three-day camping trip in the Huntington Lake area on April 20, but survived three weeks in the wilderness-it-made food and cooking snow melts for drinking water. press conference.
Slaton said she was lost after she fell from a cliff and was unable to return to the main road because of an avalanche. After tumbling, she was unconscious for two hours. When she woke up, she stretched one of her legs and popped her other knee back in place.
She continued traveling many kilometers while she was looking for civilization, overcoming 13 snowstorms and two landslides, she said. Along the way she lost her electric bike, tent, two sleeping bags and telephone.
After she was saved, doctors found that she had dried out, but otherwise in good condition, according to the Sheriff of Fresno County.
After the press conference, comments about her story started to stream to the Fresno County Sheriff Office’s social medianews Articles about the salvation and one Reddit Post Dedicated to discussing “strange details” in her story.
“I am happy to see that other people do not believe this story. So many things are incorrect, I hope that this office is investigating completely because the resources have been used,” wrote a person on the Facebook of the Seriff’s Office. “It is embarrassing to think that people believe that someone fell off a cliff, survived 2 hours unconscious (think she put the timing), put her knee back in place and traveled 20 miles after she played her leg.”
Slaton has no longer spoken with the media since the press conference. Her mother, Fredrina Slaton, refused an interview request from the Times on behalf of her.
On Monday her parents closed donations to their GoFundMe page, which had collected more than $ 23,500, with reference to “negative feedback that originated from these events.”
“It took a lot to endure the attacks and attention and to ask for help brought us,” wrote Fredrina Slaton on Gofundme.
Slaton’s parents reported that their daughter was missing on April 29 after not hearing her for nine days. They launched fundraising on 7 May and continued to accept donations after she was found, with reference to the need to cover travel costs to California.
“We are currently not conducting interviews,” said Fredrina Slaton The Times in a Wednesday statement. “We focus on the health and well -being of Tiffany.”
Bobby Slaton, Tiffany’s father, has defended and written the survival story of his daughter on Gofundme: “Believe it or not, we even thank those who have interrogated the merit of the events – that makes miracles so incredible.”
Tiffany Slaton laughs in Fresno County after her salvation.
(Fresno County Sheriff)
Experienced Sierra Mountain Guide Howie Schwartz said that he did not doubt whether Slaton was lost in the wilderness, but said there is much that is not logical about her story.
“It doesn’t look like a story that you can really wrap your head,” Schwartz told The Times. “Falling a cliff, her leg must splash. You don’t spell your leg unless your leg is broken and when your leg is broken, you don’t walk for miles.”
Schwartz led a five-day ski trip in the mono recesses in the Sierra while Slaton was missing and saw helicopters looking for her. He confirmed that snowstorms were still passing through the region in the late season, but noted that the height of Huntington and Edison Lakes is low enough that precipitation probably came down like rain.
Another detail on which many internet search is fixed is the experience of Slaton with her phone. She said she was unable to contact 911, but received GPS information for a Starbucks location.
“I finally got angry with my GPS and decided to ask:” Well, where is the nearest Starbucks? ” She said at the press conference. “It was like:” Oh, well, we can answer that question. It is 18 miles from here. “
Tony Botti, a spokesperson for the Sheriff of Fresno County, said that the department does not yet have a clear understanding of all the aspects of Slaton’s survival story – such as the exact route she traveled while she was missing, or how her phone could not contact 911 but did not point to a Starbucks.
“We can only work with the information she has told us because there are no other independent witnesses,” Botti said in a statement to the Times. “If there are inaccuracies or embellishments, we really can’t do anything about it.”
The department is still investigating Slaton’s journey and has found tracks that stand in line with her path, but has found none of her missing assets, said Botti.
Some people have accused Slaton of looking for attention with her story and to point out her comment during the news conference that she was interested in the survival show “Alone” in which participants with only a backpack in the wilderness are left behind.
“Option 1: She is mentally ill and needs help. Option 2: She enormous the story enormously to treat her terrible contempt for common sense option 3: a skilled story in search of a book deal and [Go]Fundme Revenue, “wrote a person on Reddit.” Everyone who knows the area would agree. ‘
Some critics have described her because she has not taken a satellite contact device – with which people can send messages in areas without mobile service – with the argument that she wasted law enforcement sources in the search for her.
Botti defended Slaton and said that the woman did not report as missing and “there is no evidence to show that she knew we were looking for her.”
Fresno County Sheriff John Zanoni called Slaton’s journey ‘an incredible story of perseverance, determination and survival’ and said it is’ something that you can see on TV what they would make films’ about ‘.
The Sheriff office started looking for Slaton after her parents had reported her missing and, thanks to tips from the public, heard that she was last seen in Huntington Lake on April 20.
The Sheriff search and rescue team searched nearly 600 square miles of the Hoge Sierra looking for Slaton from 6 to 10 May. Vehicles could not get through Kaiser Pass because of heavy snow that blocked the road, but helicopters were used to explore over Mono Hot Springs and around Lake Edison, where Slaton was eventually found.
The Sheriff office announced that the missing walker was “miraculously found alive” on 14 May in Vermilion Valley Resort, which lies more than 20 miles from where she was last seen. Resort owner Christopher Gutierrez found Slaton in a hut when he checked in the state of his resort prior to reopening for the summer season.
Gutierrez praised Slaton’s wilderness skills during a press conference last week and said he was impressed by how she had endured and fed a snowstorm to survive.
“She has stories, she could write a book,” he said. “It’s just incredible.”
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