WOMAN STUCK IN CAR FOR EIGHT DAYS, as authorities dawdled in the face of her husband’s missing-person reports. It seems they were more interested in seeing if he’d killed her than in finding her:

“I basically hounded them until they started a case and then, of course, I was the first focal point, so I tried to get myself out of the way as quickly as possible. I let them search the house. I told them they didn’t have to have a warrant for anything, just ask,” he said.

Thursday morning, detectives asked him to come in to sign for a search of phone records. They also asked him to take a polygraph test.

“By the time he was done explaining the polygraph test to me, the detective burst into the room with a cell phone map that had a circle on it,” he said.

His wife’s car tumbled about 20 feet down a ravine and lay buried below brush and blackberry bushes. The air bags deployed, but she was injured and trapped. Rescuers had to cut the roof off to get her out.

“I know there were delays (in finding her) because of red tape,” Tom Rider said.

Nice work, King County. Reader Tom Gunther reports something he saw that’s also bad:

During the segment report on GMA it was mentioned that her husband did not notify authorities until four days after she was last scene. The husband then appeared live with (I believe) a King County police officer, and Diane Sawyer asked the husband about this. The husband responded to the effect that the report was not accurate he called earlier but was told by the authorities that her wife is an independent woman and can go where she pleases. Sawyer did not press the King County official about this issue.

After eight days trapped in a wrecked vehicle, I’m sure she appreciates their concern for her freedom.