Here is one of those stories about a mysterious person who appears at the scene of a tragedy, make a difference, and then can’t be found.
+++
On Sunday, August 2, around 9:00 a.m, a 19-year-old woman, Katie Lentz, was hit by a drunk driver in a small Missouri town. Badly injured but still alive, Katie was trapped between the steering wheel and the seat. A rescue vehicle arrived at the scene and workers tried for 45 minutes to extricate her from her mangled car, but to no avail.
Her condition deteriorated and she finally asked the rescue workers to pray with her. That’s when a priest with gray hair, dressed in black and wearing a clerical collar, appeared on the scene and offered a prayer. He told everyone to remain calm and said that when they were done praying, Katie would be freed from her car.
Right after the priest finished praying for her, the fire department arrived with the equipment necessary to cut Katie free from her car. When she was pulled from the wreckage, nearly a dozen firefighters turned to thank the priest for his help. But he was nowhere to be seen.
The highway where the accident occurred had been blocked for a quarter of a mile during the 90 minutes rescue and there were no bystanders and not a single parked car nearby. A friend of Katie’s told the local new affiliate KHQA hat they were looking for the priest to thank him, but so far no one had seen him. He wasn’t in any of the dozens of photos that were taken of the accident and no one has been able to identify him.
New London Fire Chief Raymond Reed, one of the rescuers at the scene, told KHQA that it was a miracle. “I would say it was either 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.”
Katie’s mother agrees. She told USA Today that emergency workers said her daughter should not have lived through the crash. She believes the man may have been “an angel dressed in priests attire because the Bible tells us there are angels among us.”
The young woman remains in serious condition and has gone through surgery for her injuries. The image above is a sketch artist’s rendition of what the priest looked like.
Stories like these have circulated for years. There’s a phenomenon called the third man factor or the third man syndrome that refers to an unseen presence – a spirit, perhaps – that provides comfort during traumatic and life-threatening experiences. But in this instance, the priest was a physical presence witnessed by others.
MomWithWings, I found the story about the priest coming forward on unknowncountry.com, with a photograph of the priest, so you don’t need to reply, but thanks!! 🙂 In the photograph on the Strieber site, the priest doesn’t appear anything like the above sketch at all. Go figure.
MomWithWings, is there a place where we can locate the info about the priest stepping out and revealing himself? I’ve had a strange thought (that wasn’t on purpose). The other night a movie was on TV that I had seen years ago so I didn’t watch it again. But the title of the movie was HERO, and it was about a man, a real human, who had performed some kind of almost miraculous assistance during some kind of crisis…I don’t recall the details….but he didn’t want publicity and so he faded into the shadows. Another man, seeking attention and glory, stepped up and pretended to be the “hero”. That was pretty much the gist of it altho I don’t recall the entire storyline or how it ended. I find myself wondering if this priest who “came forth” is really the one, or if it is an imposter? I’m not normally suspicious, but I do know the Catholic Church doesn’t allow for “miracles” in this day and time, and might set someone up to do that to prevent folks from believing a true miracle happened?? Just a crazy thot of mine. Would love to access the info where the priest revealed himself, if it’s available???
I saw the report this morning on either The Today show or Good Morning America.
They said that he had met again with the girl he saved who was in the hospital. He was very soft spoken.
The priest was real! He came forth.
Thanks for letting us know !
It is so nice to hear a good story regarding paranormal activity. It is also so nice that major news networks have picked it up. We are not alone and never have been.
Rob and I were talking about that tonight. The cynic in me says that major media picked it up because it involved a priest. Regardless of who or what he was, it seized people’s attention.
MomWithWings, I have a journal that I long ago entitled DANCING WITH SHADOWS. I journal every day; sometimes just dreams, but always any spiritual/psychic experiences. I began to do this when I was just 19, because I had no one with whom I could discuss these high weirdness incidents after the death of my Dad. So yes, I do have an on-going written journal, very very many hundreds of pages now. I try to keep the entries as accurate as I can, and always with the date(s). Often I simply record symbols that I’m receiving, even when I don’t yet understand what the symbols are telling me until later, when the reason manifests. I had read about this priest appearing on the accident scene and then vanishing, and am so glad to see Rob and Trish posting it here. Wondrous. Mystical. Mysterious.
We didn’t realize till tonight that part of the post was illegible. We get these quirks sometimes. Anyway, it’s now corrected.
Certainly mysterious. It’s easy to become limited with our thinking. We tend to see a guardian angel or an angel, for example, in a certain form – when they may well sometimes look completely different to what the majority imagine.
Interesting post as is Math’s comment.
Wonderful post.
Math, as usual your stories just blow me away. I hope that you are writing these down!
It would seem that from time to time, a spirit presence can take on the image of
physical matter. As you know, this happened at my Mother’s hospital bedside during her final three days of life. A (Catholic) cleric in full, formal robes appeared regularly at her bedside and performed what was apparently some type of last rites. She wasn’t Catholic in this life time, but the cleric was definitely Catholic. And he was observed by practically everyone who worked in the hospital. Word spread throughout the facility about him, and although he could be seen, he seemed oblivious to the people in the room and no one was able to touch him, nor could his voice be heard, but all could see his hands and lips moving. He came and went. There was an article written in the local paper there about it. Many were frightened by his appearance, but most felt a sense of extreme peace when he was in the room. The nurses on the floor finally had to stop people from going in to see him because it was disturbing my Mother even though she was comatose. One of the nurses who was Catholic described what he was doing as “giving her the last rites”, yet he did it repeatedly. I wanted to take Polaroid pictures, but knew how my introverted Mother always guarded her privacy and my sister rejected the idea. I did take a tape recorder in there to see if we could capture an EVP, and it picked up some very beautiful, distant music, but no voices. (My Mother was a classical pianist and violinist, and I believe the music was being played from “Somewhere” for her benefit.) Very strange world, indeed.