Disabled Kent woman found after nine days in towed car alone in tow yard

A severely disabled woman was found by Kent police inside a car that had been in a tow yard for nine days, according to the Kent Police Department.

Around 3:15 p.m. on Feb. 14, Kent police responded to a report of a missing person.

The reporting person told officers her severely disabled sister had not been seen since earlier in the month.

An investigation revealed the woman was last seen on Feb. 5, when her mother parked her car at a gas station in Kent and walked off, leaving her daughter in the car.

At the request of the gas station, the car was privately towed to Skyway Towing in Burien.

“(Gas station workers) knocked on the car to make sure nobody was in it. My driver had done the same. We thought we were clear,” said Bon Pauza, manager of Skyway Towing.

Officers contacted Pauza about prying open the car. He told KIRO 7 TV it was a discovery he will never forget.

“In 30 years of towing, I’ve never seen anything like this,” Pauza said.

According to police, the woman had been there for nine days, alone in the tow yard, enduring near-freezing weather. They added that the woman is severely disabled and likely wouldn’t have been able to call out for help.

She was taken to the hospital in serious condition.

“You find them alive, you’re a whole lot happier than if you find a dead body, so we were pretty excited by it,” Pauza told KIRO 7.