Police are now saying that the woman who reportedly survived over three weeks in the woods alone without food and barely any water was allegedly high on drugs when she got lost — and that she was only a mile from the road throughout the 25-day ordeal.
Lisa Theris, who reportedly lost up to 45 pounds and said she survived on berries, mushrooms and puddle water as she navigated Alabama woods, made national headlines after she was re-emerged on Aug. 12, but The Daily Mail is reporting that police now believe drug use might have been involved in the purported disappearance.
New photos show extent of Lisa Theris' injuries https://t.co/6cYiVoJZ0T pic.twitter.com/xtVL8OLTL5
— WSFA 12 News (@wsfa12news) August 16, 2017
Bullock County Sheriff Raymond Rodgers told the outlet that, based on Theris’ physical condition, he believes she was in the woods the entire time after her dad reported her missing on July 23. The details are still foggy, but authorities have some theories.
“We are thinking they were all pretty much on drugs,” Rodgers said of Theris and two other men who reportedly spent time with her. “‘Me personally, I think she was on meth, she was hallucinating and she just got lost in the woods.”
The sheriff added, “She was probably so under the influence on drugs that she stripped her clothes off. She was in a strange place, she came to, she didn’t know where she was. I don’t know how much drugs she took but I believe she was in there the whole time.”
Crime Online has more about the two men she was reportedly with before her disappearance:
Theris went to the woods with two men, Manley Davis, 31, and Randall Oswald, 36. She said she was in the truck with the guys on July 19, when they started ramming the metal entry gate of a secluded hunting lodge with the truck. She became frightened, jumped out of the truck, and fled. She told authorities she tore off her red shirt while running away, fearing the men would see the color of her shirt and shoot her.
It’s a truly bizarre story with some shocking claims and you can read the rest of the alleged details here.
As Faithwire previously reported, police and members of Theris’ family assumed she was dead after the initial 25 days had passed. But she eventually made her way out of the woods to a nearby road where a driver spotted her, weak and naked; it was a development that stunned everyone.
The driver called 911 and Ferris was soon picked up, her body covered in poison ivy, bug bites and dirt from head to toe.
In an interview with ABC news, Ferris said she didn’t know how she got to the woods in the first place and may have been drugged. She was last seen with two men, who had recently vandalized a nearby cabin. Ferris herself had been scheduled to appear in court for a minor, unrelated charge while she was lost, though that was dropped when police determined she was likely deceased.