Lyndsey Kennedy: Woman found naked in Florida storm drain now rescued from Texas tunnel system
A woman who was rescued from a Florida storm drain after she went missing for three weeks reportedly found herself in another underground tunnel system in Texas over the weekend.
Speaking to CBS affiliate WPEC, the mother of 43-year-old Lyndsey Kennedy recounted how her daughter was taken to a hospital after she climbed out of a 6-foot drain pipe Saturday night. She had reportedly been checked into a rehabilitation facility in Texas when she wandered off.
Police said that Kennedy was last seen near the Dallas suburbs of Grand Prairie and Arlington. Speaking to Fox News, her friend Brady Morgan said that she was spotted by Grand Prairie officers. However, when they approached her, she reportedly slipped into a nearby storm drain. Her family subsequently tracked her using an app on her cell phone that noted her last location before she went underground. In an effort to sustain her, loved ones reportedly dropped bags of food and Gatorade in nearby manholes.
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The TV station reported how Kennedy was in the hospital on a psychiatric hold after allegedly suffering from psychosis and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from years of being in an abusive relationship. In March this year, she was pulled out of a storm drain in Florida’s Delray Beach after having been missing for three weeks.
At the time, Kennedy told police that she went for a swim in a canal near her boyfriend's house. While swimming, she said she came across a doorway near a shallow part of the canal and went through the door, and spotted the tunnel. She said she followed the tunnel which led to another tunnel, and then another. As she was exploring the tunnels, she said she realized she was lost.
According to CBS, Delray Beach Fire Rescue spokeswoman Dani Moschella said, "Traffic was rushing by and she was on her phone when she heard somebody screaming. When she looked down in the storm drain, there’s a woman down there."
The fire rescue crew removed the drain's grate to get to Kennedy, who was naked. The crew members also said that she could not stand on her own. Moschella said, "She wasn't wearing any clothes, she was dirty and disheveled."
“I don’t know how much longer she would have been ok down there,” Moschella told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper at the time of the rescue. “The idea that somebody might be down there for any length of time is disturbing. It’s dirty, dangerous, there’s snakes, rats, garbage, dirt and leaves, anything that’s on the street that washes into a sewer, and it smells terrible.”
When the police contacted Kennedy's mother, she said that her daughter has a history of mental illness and is a frequent user of illegal narcotics. She added that her daughter has a history of doing odd things and making bad decisions while she is high on drugs, according to a police report at the time.
Meanwhile, Delray Beach Police spokesman Ted White said that the initial investigation showed no signs of foul play, stating, "It doesn't feel like she was taken against her will. It appears this was done by her own free will."