Bullock County (Ala.) Sheriff Raymond Rogers contends that the Alabama woman who survived almost a month in the woods allegedly was high on meth when she got lost.
Lisa Theris, 25, stumbled out of the woods on August 12, close to Highway 82 in Bullock County, near Midway and Eufaula. A driver spotted Theris, naked, filthy, with matted hair and scratches and bites all over her body, standing close to the side of a road. Alabama Sheriff Raymond Rodgers initially said Theris wasn’t familiar with the area she got lost in, but he recently told Daily Mail that he thinks the radiologist student was high on methamphetamines when she became lost.
“Me personally, I think she was on meth, she was hallucinating and she just got lost in the woods. She was probably so under the influence of 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.”
New photos show extent of Lisa Theris' injuries https://t.co/6cYiVoJZ0T pic.twitter.com/xtVL8OLTL5
— WSFA 12 News (@wsfa12news) August 16, 2017
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.
Later, both men were arrested while Theris remained lost in the woods. Oswald told authorities that Davis shot Theris in the head and threw in the lake, while Davis maintained that she jumped out of their truck and ran. Neither were entirely certain what happened. When Theris emerged from the woods, both were relieved.
Meanwhile, Theris still says she can’t remember much of what happened to her in the woods after she ran away from Davis and Oswald. She did recall that she drank muddy water and ate berries and mushrooms for survival. Yet, the wooded area she was in is only around a mile away from Mt Pleasant Road and Highway 82, where the driver ultimately found her.
Further, there are hunting tracks and power lines in the wooded area around the undergrowth. Still, given her extreme scratches, bites, and contact with poison ivy, Rogers feels that Theris did indeed spend all of her time lost in woods.
Theris has poor vision and she’s considered legally blind. She also told authorities she couldn’t hear any cars going by and didn’t have her cellphone on her. It’s still unclear why she didn’t have her belongings with her and why she wasn’t wearing shoes or clothes when she emerged from the woods.
Bullock Co investigators release photos of Lisa Theris, missing woman who survived naked in woods for a month before finding a way out pic.twitter.com/kMBJUCAXvi
— Lindsey Rogers (@WSFALindsey) August 16, 2017
“We are thinking they were all pretty much on drugs,” Rogers told Daily Mail, referring to Theris, Davis, and Oswald.
In June, a month before she went missing in the woods, Theris reportedly caused such a disturbance while attending a friend’s court hearing that she was thrown out of the courthouse, and later arrested for disorderly conduct after reportedly telling deputies she didn’t have to do as they asked.
Rogers reported that Theris has not been cleared in the robbery investigation.
Check back with CrimeOnline as additional details become available.
[Feature Photo: Handout]
