A Massachusetts woman who had been missing for a week was rescued on Monday after she was found stuck in mud in a state park south of Boston, the authorities said.
Emma Tetewsky, 31, was found around 6 p.m. Monday after police officers were dispatched to Borderland State Park, where hikers said they had heard a woman screaming for help in a “swamp-like area,” the Easton and Stoughton police departments and the Easton Fire Department said in a joint statement. The state park is about 30 miles south of Boston.
The authorities believe she may have been trapped in the mud for three days.
“The public never gave up hope that she would be located safely,” the police in Stoughton, Mass., where Ms. Tetewsky lives, said on Facebook on Monday.
Ms. Tetewsky was reported missing around noon on June 26 after she was last seen near her residence in Stoughton, a town of 29,000 residents about 20 miles south of Boston. The authorities said she was known to visit the Pinewood Pond in Stoughton and Lake Massapoag in nearby Sharon, Mass.
By June 28, other agencies had been brought in to assist with the search, including the Massachusetts State Police and the police departments in Easton, Westwood and Quincy, Mass. Searches at ground level, including with police dogs, and by helicopter turned up no sign of Ms. Tetewsky. The authorities asked for the public’s help in daily social media posts, noting that Ms. Tetewsky did not have a cellphone with her.
In an interview with WFXT-TV on June 29, Chief Donna M. McNamara of the Stoughton police urged anyone who lived near a waterway to “check under any canoes or rafts you may have, if you have an outbuilding, shed, under the porch, anywhere she may seek shelter.”
The breakthrough came on Monday afternoon, when hikers at Borderland State Park, which is known for its fishing ponds and hiking and biking trails, heard Ms. Tetewsky screaming for help. Unable to reach her on foot without assistance, the hikers called the authorities, the Stoughton police said.
“Upon arrival, Easton officers heard Tetewsky but could not see her,” the police said.
Three officers waded 50 feet from the shore, through thick brush and swamp, to reach Ms. Tetewsky, and carried her back to land, where she was evaluated by firefighters, the Stoughton police said.
Ms. Tetewsky was conscious and alert when she was found, the police said, and she was taken to a hospital to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries.