Utah Baby Rescue: Officers Heard Call For 'Help' From Inside Car Despite Driver Being Dead

Four police officers, who rushed to an overturned car in Utah to rescue an 18-month baby girl on Saturday, reportedly said they heard a woman calling for “help” from inside the car. The call for help has now been clouded in doubt because the only other person in the car was already dead by the time rescue officers reached.

"The four of us heard a distinct voice coming from the car," Officer Jared Warner, who was one of the first officers to reach the spot to save baby Lily Groesback, told CNN, adding: "To me, it didn't sound like a child's voice."

The voice had reportedly motivated the rescuers to put in more effort to get the vehicle upright. The mother, who was the driver, was found dead inside the car while the baby was dangling upside down for nearly 14 hours in the vehicle, with water from the Spanish Fork River flowing below her head. When the rescuers reached Lily, her eyes were fluttering and Warner had dashed toward the ambulance with the rescued baby in his hand. After the rescue operation was over, seven of the men had to be treated for hypothermia, CNN reported.

"It felt like I could hear someone telling me, 'I need help,'" Officer Bryan DeWitt, said, according to CNN, which cited its affiliate KSL. "It was very surreal, something that I felt like I could hear."

Officer Tyler Beddoes said, according to Deseret News: "It wasn't just something that was just in our heads. To me it was plain as day cause I remember hearing a voice," adding: "I think it was Dewitt who said, 'We're trying. We're trying our best to get in there.' How do you explain that?"

"It was a positive boost for every one of us because I think it pushed us to go harder a little longer. I don't think that any one of us had intended on flipping a car over that day," Beddoes said, according to Deseret News, adding: "We know there was some other help there, getting us where we needed to be."

Lily, who was given CPR by health officials on the spot, is recovering fast at a Salt Lake City hospital and her condition has been upgraded to "stable but critical" from "critical."

"Her improvement is astounding,” her family said, according to CNN, adding: “She is smiling and laughing for family members. We're blown away by Lily's progress and so grateful to her rescuers."