A 35-year-old physical therapist and yoga instructor who went missing in the Makawao Forest Reserve on Maui, Hawaii, two weeks ago has been found alive, according to her family and a Facebook page devoted to the search.
Amanda Eller was found Friday in a creek bed between two waterfalls by three volunteers searching the area by helicopter.
The Maui News reported that Eller was injured, but did not elaborate. Photos on the Facebook page showed her with bruised and swollen feet and a smudged, but smiling, face.
“We did it, man! We found her,” said Javier Cantellops, one of a group of friends and family who spent the last searching for her.
THEY DID IT!!! #findamanda Amanda Eller has been found alive! After 17 days lost in the steep jungles of East Maui, the never-ending determination & steadfast faith of THESE and HUNDREDS of volunteer searchers paid off!’ a volunteer tweeted.
Speaking from her hospital bed Eller, who was wearing just a thin top, a sports bra and a pair of yoga pants. said: ‘I wanted to give up. But the only option I had was life or death.’
“There were times of total fear and loss and wanting to give up,” she said in video posted on Facebook. “It did come down to life and death and I had to choose. I chose life – I wasn’t going to take the easy way out.”
Dr. Zora Bulatovic, who treated Amanda, said she looks “amazing” and should recover fully.
“It’s just a miracle that our daughter has come home to us,” Eller’s Mother said. “Miracles do happen.”