Kindergarten teacher goes missing for weeks after pastor says bipolar meds would summon demons

A Modesto, California, kindergarten teacher was found alive on August 4, nearly three weeks after crashing her car and disappearing.  

Jamie Tull, 33, was found about half a mile east of the spot where she crashed her car in Le Grand a small town in Merced County, reported 5 News 

Tull’s family and friends had been searching for her when a cousin and other relatives spotted her in the corner of a fenced pasture. She was severely sunburned and dehydrated. She survived by drinking water from a cattle water trough and eating the occasional insect, according to 5 News  

Tull was able to speak and told her rescuers she was trying to get to Yosemite. Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke told the Merced Sun Star it appeared Tull had been actively avoiding discovery. Tull reportedly told her rescuers that she did not want to be found and asked them to leave her some food and water and “go away.” She was flown to a hospital in Fresno for evaluation and treatment.  

Tull’s father said she suffers from bipolar disorder and reportedly stopped taking her medication about six months ago because a pastor and his wife told her the pills lead to demons, reported Fox News. 

The Merced Sun-Star reported Jamie Tull had filed a petition for divorce from her husband, Apollo Tull, on June 23.  

Jamie Tull had been on the phone with her husband when she crashed her car on July 17. Apollo Tull told the Merced Sun-Star his wife had called him in tears and told him, “I’m not going to see you again,” just moments before she crashed her car into a field.  

Apollo told the newspaper that his wife got back on the phone after the crash and told him where she was and that she had crashed through a fence and into a cattle gate. He said he texted her father to call 911 and he also called 911 after ending the call with his wife.  

After the call, Apollo and Jamie’s mother drove to the crash site where authorities were on scene, but there was no sign of Jamie. Over the next 17 days friends and family searched for Jamie over land and by air, with no luck, until Friday.  

“Evidently, she’s got some issues emotionally as to why she didn’t want to be found,” Merced County Sheriff van Warnke told the Merced Sun-Star. “We’ll let the family work through that.”

 

Feature photo: Facebook/Apollo Tull