Utah car accident: Jenny Groesback dead, toddler Lily survives thanks to ‘miraculous’ voice
The mystery continues and makes headlines as four police officers reportedly heard a female voice cry out for “help” from an overturned car in an Utah river, but only discovered a small toddler alive inside. All four officers on scene confirmed they all heard the mysterious voice ahead of discovering Jennifer Groesback already dead in the 40-degree water.
Lily, 18-month-old daughter, while still alive and unconscious and couldn’t have been the speaker as Officer Jared Warner of the Spanish Fork Police Department spoke to the press about the incident.
“We’ve gotten together and just talk about it and all four of us can swear that we heard somebody inside the car saying, ‘Help,’” Warner told Deseret News.
“The only people in there were the deceased mother and the child,” Officer Bryan Dewitt told the paper.
Officer Tyler Beddoes said they can’t explain it, but have no doubt they heard it.
“It wasn’t just something that was just in our heads. To me it was plain as day cause I remember hearing a voice,” Beddoes confirmed as well. “I think it was Dewitt who said, ‘We’re trying. We’re trying our best to get in there.’ How do you explain that? I don’t know,” he said.
Nobody knows exactly how the infant survived hanging upside down for nearly 14 hours in her car seat with no food or water. Lily reportedly dangled, icy water rushed just below her head through broken car windows as the vehicle sat perched on the bank and rocks. The temperatures were near freezing throughout the night and through the morning.
“It’s heartbreaking. Was she crying most the night?” said Beddoes, a 30-year-old father of two. “It’s a miracle. . . She was needed for sure elsewhere.”
Police believe the accident occurred when the baby’s mother, Lynn “Jenny” Groesbeck, 25, struck a cement barrier on a bridge and careened into the river in Spanish Fork, about 50 miles south of Salt Lake City.
She was driving to her home in Springville after visiting her parents in Salem, Spanish Fork police Lt. Matt Johnson said. Investigators don’t know what caused the crash, he said. There were no skid marks or signs of mechanical failures in the car.
Police don’t suspect drugs or alcohol as a factor but are awaiting toxicology test results.
Lily’s survival is a miracle as she recovers at a local hospital. As far as the “voice,” the mystery remains.
