The funeral was halted immediately, and the coroner was called again. Authorities ordered another examination, which revealed that the woman’s DNA did not match Madeline’s.
So where was she?
Eli explained that he’d had a dream the night before. In it, his mother sat beside his bed, holding his hand. She was cold, soaked, her breathing shallow—but she managed to tell him she was still alive.
The search for Madeline resumed that same day. Two days later, she was found—weak, starving, but alive. She had been trapped inside an old abandoned cabin about a kilometer downstream from where the other woman’s body had been discovered.
Officials labeled the situation a bizarre case of mistaken identity. But what mattered most was that Madeline had survived.
She was disoriented and couldn’t remember the exact moment she was dragged away by the current. She received medical attention and spent several days in the hospital before finally being able to return home to her family.
The unidentified woman whose body was mistaken for Madeline’s was never identified.
