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Mysterious priest performs miracle at site of Mercedes crash

HTania

By HTania
in Off-Topic General

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HTania Abbotsford Star

HTania

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CENTER, MO. -- Rescue workers want to thank a higher power for coming to the rescue early Sunday morning.

Emergency crews spent an hour and a half trying to extricate a 19-year-old Quincy woman trapped in her in crushed car on Missouri 19 near Center, Mo.

The Missouri Highway Patrol said Aaron Smith, 26, crossed the center line and struck Katie Lentz head-on.

Now, friends, family and those who rescued Lentz would love to find and thank a mysterious priest who they say helped make the rescue possible.

New London Fire Chief Raymond Reed said rescue crews spent the first 45 minutes after the accident trying to get Lentz out of a car to no avail Sunday morning shortly after 9 a.m. The metal on an older model Mercedes dulled the department's equipment.

"It was a very well-built car, and when you compact materials like that one, they become even stronger because you're cutting through multiple things instead of one layer," Reed said.

Reed says Lentz was pinned in between the steering wheel and the seat. After 45 minutes passed, medical workers told rescue crews that Katie was failing and fast. That's when Reed decided to move the car, which was standing on its side, back on all four wheels.

About an hour into the rescue, Katie asked rescue workers to pray out loud with her. That's when a priest appeared out of no where.

"He came up and approached the patient, and offered a prayer," Reed said. "It was a Catholic priest who had anointing oil with him. A sense of calmness came over her, and it did us as well. I can't be for certain how it was said, but myself and another firefighter, we very plainly heard that we should remain calm, that our tools would now work and that we would get her out of that vehicle."

The Hannibal Fire Department showed up right after that prayer with fresh equipment and was able to finish the extrication. After getting Katie safely into the Air Evac helicopter, at least a dozen of the rescue workers turned around to thank the priest who was no where in sight. The highway had been blocked for a quarter of a mile during the hour and a half rescue, leaving no bystanders and no parked cars nearby. Lentz' family and friends are amazed by the story.

"Where did this guy come from?" Lentz's friend Travis Wiseman asked. "We're looking for the priest and so far, no one has seen him. Whether it was a priest as an angel or an actual angel, he was an angel to all those and to Katie."

"We would like to find this gentleman and be able to thank him," Reed said. "As a first responder, you don't know what you're going to run into. We have a lot of tools, and we have intensive training. In this particular case, it is my feeling that it was nothing more than sheer faith and nothing short of a miracle."

Two witnesses have described the priest to KHQA. Click here for description.

Katie has undergone surgeries to repair several broken bones. She is scheduled for more surgeries in the coming weeks, but friends and family say her spirit has not wavered.

"Both of her legs are very damaged," Lentz's friend Amanda Wiseman said. "Her wrist is broken, several broken ribs, so she's had a lot of broken bones to deal with."

According to Katie's mother, Katie's condition has been upgraded to serious condition in Blessing Hospital. In addition to several internal injuries, she has undergone orthopedic surgeries and has more to face.

"All along the way, her foremost request is for people to pray and to pray out loud," she said. "We would like nothing more than to carry that message forward for her."

The driver of the other car in that accident, Aaron Smith, has been charged with a DWI, second degree assault and failure to drive on the right half of the roadway.

KHQA asked the Missouri Department of Transportation if there have ever been talks of turning Missouri 19 into a 4-lane highway.

A MoDOT spokesperson said a group called the Tri-State Development Group has identified that highway as a priority to examine. However, MoDOT has never identified that road as a priority.

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HTania Abbotsford Star

HTania

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Another news about this:

A mysterious Catholic priest showed up to the site of a car crash in Missouri on Sunday, with witnesses saying he offered a blessing before disappearing just as quickly as he arrived.

But those at the site of the crash, including a number of rescue workers, are now at a loss after realizing no one knows the identity of the mysterious holy man who does not appear in any of the nearly 70 photographs taken at the scene of the accident.

"I think it's a miracle," Raymond Reed, fire chief of New London, told USA Today. "I would say whether it was an angel that was sent to us in the form of a priest or a priest that became our angel, I don't know. Either way, I'm good with it."

Reed and other rescue workers spent 45 minutes attempting to remove 19-year-old college student Katie Lentz from the wreckage, to no avail. While Lentz was conscious and communicating with authorities, they said her vital signs were quickly dropping.

Rescue workers were left with little choice other than to turn the flipped car over. But such a move posed a potentially life-threatening injury to the young woman, who subsequently asked for someone to pray with her.

And that’s when the mysterious priest reportedly appeared, saying “I will,” praying with Lentz and some of the rescue workers and sprinkling the young woman with oil.

Reed and his team then turned the car over and freed Lentz, who was taken by helicopter to a nearby hospital.

But when Reed and other emergency workers tried to find the priest to thank him, he had already left the scene.

"We all go back to thank this priest and he's gone," Reed said.

The man was described as being in his late 50s and dressed in full priest’s garb.

“Where did this guy come from?” added Lentz's friend Travis Wiseman . ”We're looking for the priest and so far, no one has seen him. Whether it was a priest as an angel or an actual angel, he was an angel to all those and to Katie.”

"We're all local people from four different towns," Reed said, noting that police had put up barriers to the crash site for two miles in each direction. "We've only got one Catholic church out of three towns and it wasn't their priest."

"I have 69 photographs that were taken from minutes after that accident happened — bystanders, the extrication, our final cleanup — and he's not in them," Reed added. "All we want to do is thank him."

Lentz’s mother says her daughter is recovering from her injuries and gives the mysterious cleric credit for helping her pull through in her time of need.

"I do believe he certainly could have been an angel dressed in priest's attire because the Bible tells us there are angels among us," Carla Churchhill Lentz told USA Today.

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TOMapleLaughs Canucks All-Star

TOMapleLaughs

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Non life-threatening event, but it sounds like the Hannibal Fire Deparment should be thanked more than mystery priest.

If mystery priest actually performed the rescue, saved her life, or even if her life was in immediate danger, that would be something.

Meanwhile, the New London fire chief looks like he should get his departments tools upgraded instead of relying on prayer and waiting for other departments to perform rescues.

Missouri is in the bible belt. Not sure about Missoura.

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The Brahma Bull Canucks First-Line

The Brahma Bull

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I think the people that were there are more shocked (for lack of a better word) that with the amount of people that were there that saw this mysterious priest and the amount of pictures that were taken, there is no picture of him. It's one thing to doubt one or two people when they claim to see something spiritual, but quite another when it is a larger group. I'm not claiming that this did or did not happen, but to simply write something off simply because you don't believe is foolish.

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Monty Canucks All-Star

Monty

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^^^TOMapleLaughs

I think it depends on ones definition of a miracle. I think mainly it would be whether or not there was devine intervention that took place. Now again, I'm not claiming this did or did not happen, as I was not there to say one way or another. Those involved in this "incident" are trying to find some evidence of this priest being there, of which there is none at this point, which is why some would clasify this as a miracle.

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