Dresser falls on woman, leaving her trapped for 4 days

WASHINGTON COUNTY - A woman who was seriously injured after a dresser fell on top of her spent four days trapped in her house and was rescued when neighbors noticed something wasn't quite right.

On Friday, sheriff's deputies were called to a home in the 12000 block of Northwest Barnes Road in the Cedar Hills area to check on a 67-year-old woman.

Neighbors said they had not seen or heard from her for four days and were concerned. The woman lives alone and usually tells a neighbor when she will be away. When nobody heard from her but saw her car still in the driveway, they thought something might be wrong.

Sheriff's deputies first tried to contact the woman's family but they live out of the area and could not be reached. At that point, deputies decided they should force entry into the house and that's when they found the woman badly hurt, but alive.

Virginia Cartier was taken to the hospital with injuries to both her legs. She said she had been moving furniture when a dresser fell and trapped her. While her injuries were serious, she was released from the hospital on Saturday.

The sheriff's office is crediting Cartier's neighbors for seeing that something was wrong and making a call, which likely saved the woman's life.