Search continues for Al Chretien

TWIN FALLS, ID. (NEWS1130) – Rita Chretien, the 56-year-old Penticton woman who survived the wilderness on trail mix and snow for over a month, is doing very well in hospital.  But police are still searching for her husband Al.

Chretien’s doctors say she has kept down some food and she is in good spirits.  Over the weekend the Chretien family spoke for the first time since she was discovered and say she looks good and is “upbeat.”

Their son Raymond says there were times during his mother’s ordeal that she thought she wasn’t going to make it.  “The fork in the road was right here and it could have gone either way… but it could be any moment that if the rescuers weren’t there, she wouldn’t have made it.”

Raymond was at a loss for words when asked how he would describe his mother and the strength she had to survive.  “I don’t know where to begin.  She is a giving person.  It’s so hard to find words that describe her, the way I feel about her.  She’s genuine and she cares about people.  I don’t know what to say.”

Chretien and her husband Al were heading to Las Vegas in March when their van got stuck in the mud on a remote back road.  Three days after they got stuck, Al left on foot with a GPS to go get help.

Sgt. Kevin McKinney in Elko County, Nevada, says they’ve searched the obvious paths he might have taken.  “We’ve done most of our search to the east and the southeast, which we consider the most likely routes he would take.  The information was that he was trying to go to Mountain City [Nevada].”

Expert says survivors like Rita Chretien are rare

It’s not surprising to hear Rita Chretien relied on prayer to get her through her ordeal. An expert says having a strong sense of faith is one thing survivors have in common.

UBC psychology professor emeritus Peter Suedfeld has studied people living in isolation and says survivors usually have a strong belief system.

“One of the things that gets you through is strong faith in something. That something could be God, religion, or it can be your own strength and ability, or it can be trust and luck,” Suedfeld explains.

He says survivors typically focus on why they’re determined to get out alive. He also points out Mrs. Chretien would have needed to be both physically and mentally tough, to withstand near starvation, and to accept the fact that her husband was not able to get help as he had hoped.

He says most people in her situation would have chosen to die.

“There are many examples of people in extreme situations, who, after trying, lie down and die. I think it’s to the credit of this lady that she didn’t give in; she didn’t decide the situation was hopeless and wait to die.”

And he notes she had the mental flexibility to focus on her own survival, once it became apparent that her husband’s efforts to get them rescued had failed. 

Tips to survive

Rita Chretien did many things right, and that is why she is alive today.

Tim Jones with North Shore Rescue says if there is a source of shelter and water that is where you want to be.  Rita had the van and drank the melted snow.

“I’m not sure what the dynamics were between her and her husband whether he was the stronger of the two and he was going out for rescue to leave her there… it is a very tough decision to make.  When you are in a situation like that… when you are that high, in that type of terrain, you should treat it like you are in a plane crash and they should have stayed both with the car.”