From the March 11, 2003 issue of The Chicago Sun-Times:
Hixton, Wis. - A 2-year-old girl who survived a car crash that killed her parents wandered across a freeway and was found in a grove of trees three hours later by authorities who tracked her footprints.
The girl, Anita Kayachith, was at home with relatives in Minnesota on Monday, three days after the wreck.
She is doing great. She is wonderful," said Houmpheng Phongsavath, a family member.
The car was struck by a tractor-trailer. A trooper who noticed diapers and a "sippy" cup in the car started searching for a child.
Trooper Rhonda Waldera, who is pregnant with her third child, spotted small footprints. Anita was sitting by a fence, in stocking feet in 25-degree cold.
She was quite. She didn't say anything. She wasn't crying or anything like that," said Lt. Darren Price.
Investigators say the toddler was probably sleeping in the back seat of the car and climbed out after the accident. "She has just a scratch on her head, but nothing big," said Sandy Kayachith, sister of the girl's dad.
"I think my brother was just holding on and then helped her out," she said. "I think their spirit guided her and protected her, and that's why she lasted so long."
