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 Savana Norwegian, left, Mary Ann Antoine, centre, and Vicky Williams were among a group of teens who likely saved an intoxicated man's life on Nov. 22. They led police to the woods behind them. That's where they last saw the man, who was disoriented in -22 C weather. - Derek Neary/NNSL photo |
On that day, after a couple hours of sledding at the ski hill with several friends, Vicky Williams started making her way home around 6:30 p.m.
While passing the graveyard she saw the outline of a person in the dark.
"I thought I was going crazy or something," said Williams, 16.
Then the man, who is in his late 20s, reportedly started yelling and cheering. Realizing he was drunk, Williams hollered to her friends. As they approached, the man began to walk away.
He stumbled past the in-town airstrip and started heading into the nearby woods. Williams said she repeatedly called out to the man but he didn't stop.
Some of the teens suggested that they should just forget about him. Williams and Mary Ann Antoine, also 16, knew they had to act.
"He might just freeze to death," Williams responded. "We don't want to leave him out there."
A few of the teenagers went to a nearby house to call the police. The others spent about 15 minutes searching for the man.
The teens later led the RCMP to the area where they had last seen the person. Due to blowing snow that obscured the drunken man's tracks, RCMP Cpl. Al Shepherd said it took nearly two hours to find him. It was only when a police officer heard a lone moan that they located him.
Williams said the rescuers initially feared the man wasn't breathing, but he eventually sat up and asked, "Where am I?"
He then began to weep, she recalled. He was unable to walk on his own by that point, according to Shepherd. The teens' call to the police may have saved the man's life, he said, adding that the individual was treated for hypothermia at the health centre and then released. "I was relieved that we found him," Antoine said.
The Fort Simpson RCMP encourage other residents to notify the police in similar situations.
"We don't mind getting six or seven calls about the same thing," Shepherd said. "Just make sure you call and don't assume someone else has done it."
