PRESCOTT, AZ — Stranded with a broken leg and spotty cell service in a remote part of Yavapai County, a hiker says she is beyond grateful for a team who ran into their own challenges trying to rescue her.
When plans opened for Heather Towler last week, she headed north to Prescott’s Watson Lake Loop to seek serenity amid the trees and creeks.
Towler says she would later find her leg stuck somewhere between a rock and a creek.
”My leg hit and just snapped, and the rest of me hit down by the water,” said Towler.
While on a hike, she stopped to sit and look out to the water.
When she moved to get closer, the cliff down was further than she expected.
The 37-year-old fell about six to eight feet, landing hard on her leg and breaking her tibia and fibula.
When she tried to pull her leg up from out of the creek she said, “it didn’t even look like it was connected. It was dangling.”
With adrenaline pumping, and her other leg propped on a boulder for support, screaming for help was getting her nowhere.
She tried to call 911, but being more than a mile from the trailhead, she said every call she made dropped. Tomley would be able to get an occasional text but says attempts to 911 were spotty.
Heather says she was lying on her back with a bleeding broken leg and she was running out of energy.
Eventually, a single bar of service allowed 911 dispatchers to ping her phone's location.
Body camera video from Deputy Anthony Horn shows he was the first one there, hiking over a mile in rough terrain to get to her, and immediately applying a tourniquet.
”It was in that moment I knew I was going to be OK,” said Towler, starting to get emotional.
While Horn radioed for help, he faced the same challenges.
He even asked a passerby to signal descending rescue crews to head in their direction.
After nearly four hours, according to YCSO, she was carried out and airlifted to a hospital.
While she recovers at home, ABC15 coordinated Horn to hop on a call so Heather could thank him.
”Thank you for keeping me awake, and reminding me of my kids every five seconds. I remember you kept asking me their name,” said Towler.
“That’s the most important part — I have four myself,” said Horn.
Once she recovers and the weather cools down, Horn says Heather has a new hiking buddy.
“Good, because none of my family and friends say I can go alone again,” she said to Horn.
And Deputy Horn is now Sergeant Horn. The call to help rescue Heather was his last call before he go promoted.
“It warms my heart knowing she gets to go back to her kids for something I helped with and was able to be there with,” said Horn.
