Massachusetts woman rescued after being stuck in mud for several days

EASTON, Mass. — A Massachusetts woman who had been missing for a week was rescued after she was discovered stuck in mud in a “swamp-like area” of a state park, authorities said.

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Emma Tetewsky, 31, of Stoughton, was found after a pair of hikers heard her screaming for help at 6 p.m. EDT on Monday in Borderland State Park, located about 30 miles south of Boston, WFXT-TV reported.

Police said the hikers were unable to reach Tetwesky on their own and called the Easton Police Department, according to the television station. Tetewsky was last seen on June 26 by Pinewood Pond in Stoughton, WFXT reported.

In a joint statement, the Easton and Stoughton police departments and the Easton Fire Department said they believed that Tetewsky had been stuck in the mud for about three days.

“The public never gave up hope that she would be located safely,” the Stoughton Police Department wrote in a Facebook post on Monday.

In the joint statement, Easton police Chief Keith Boone, Easton fire Chief Justin Alexander and Stoughton police Chief Donna M. McNamara said that Easton officers heard Tetewsky but could not see her. Three officers -- Jason Wheeler, Corey McLaughlin and Andrew Stanton -- waded 50 feet from the shore to reach the woman, WFXT reported.

Using ATVs, the Easton police officers pulled Tetewsky from the swampy area and took her to an area hospital, WFXT reported. She was conscious and alert, police said.

We didn’t really know what we were dealing with,” McLaughlin told the television station. “A lot of times in this job you don’t.

“It was about 50 feet in. We were about knee-deep in mud. When we saw her lying there, we did initially attempt to pick her up. The weight of her, on top of our bodies, sunk us further.”

The officers said they understood why Tetewsky was unable to free herself from the muck.

“I fell in, could hardly get up,” Wheeler told WFXT. “There was a little tree where I could grab it to try to get myself back up.”

Wheeler told the television station that Tetewsky looked “very dehydrated.”

“When you’ve been in the water a long time you get pruny,” the officer said. “So she looked like she’d been in the water a long time.”

Police said she was known to visit the pond and also Lake Massapoag in nearby Sharon, The New York Times reported.

“I’d like to commend our Easton officers, who blindly jumped into the water and followed the woman’s calls for help,” Boone said in a statement. “Their immediate action resulted in saving Emma Tetewsky.”