After Four Days In Upstate Ravine, NYC Man Found Alive

Thomas Wopat-Moreau (top); his wrecked car (below)

For four days, friends and family had been searching for Thomas Wopat-Moreau, a 22-year-old East Village resident who went missing after leaving a party in Dutchess County. A friend said, "I think he tried to go home and something happened on the way. An entire car vanished, it’s not just a person. No one’s seen either." And what happened was he lost control of his car and crashed off the Taconic State Parkway about 40 miles outside of Albany, landing 480 feet from the highway.

Wopat-Moreau was planning on stay the night in East Fishkill before heading up to his mother's house in Copake, NY, but left the party around 3 or 4 a.m. Sunday morning after reportedly getting into an argument with someone. His mother reported him missing later in the day and his friends started to search his possible routes. The Poughkeepsie Journal reports that yesterday a state trooper "saw some rubber stuck to a post along the parkway," so he went to inspect in the woods and found "Wopat-Moreau's 2005 BMW silver wagon down an embankment, upside down and 'completely demolished.'" Police aviation units couldn't see it because it was hidden by a tree.

It's believed he crawled out of the car's window (he got 150 feet away from the car) and survived without food or water for days—well, his uncle said he was drinking "swamp water." Senior Investigator Gary Mazzacano told the Daily News, "He was very relieved to have been found. He was in pretty tough shape. He was dehydrated; he was unable to move his lower extremities; he was covered in insects." Mazzacano also said that even though Wopat-Moreau's phone was dead, police were able to narrow his location to a 3-mile radius based on cell records.

Wopat-Moreau, who was scheduled to start a job at Barclays on Tuesday, remains hospitalized. State Police Capt. Scott Brown said that while he was in "rough shape," he was "cautiously optimistic" that Wopat-Moreau would "survive. He had an extreme will to live."

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By Jen Chung in News on June 4, 2010 9:00 AM

Comments [rss]

Clarice City

"He was dehydrated; he was unable to move his lower extremities; he was covered in insects."

Nothing a little alka-seltzer and Denny's can't fix ,champ.

charshiu

Where in the articles do they say he was drunk? I'm not presuming he's innocent, but I like to get my facts straight first.

LaborUnionGuy

Great now the State Troopers will give out even more shitty tickets on the taconic.

John L

Probably a little drinking and a little speeding contributed to this but alls well that ends well. I'm sure (or hope) he learned a lesson from this incident. I love happy endings.

Clarice City

Four days of "dehydration"-uh huh-. Quite the hangover.

borgbot

His family must have juice to get the media to cover a story about a drunken asshole endangering everyone on the road.

drewo

Happy ending? Yeah, New Yorkers (that's you and I) get to pay for the cleanup, manpower, and paper work required for this "accident". And this idiot could have killed not only himself but other innocent people.

No, don't give this guy a pat on the back. Give him a kick in the ass. And take away his driver's license.

Armchair_warrior

real happy ending would be he ended himself there and no future people on the road in danger of him killing them while drunk!!

lcmarl

OK, I'm as much against drunk driving as the next person, but wishing that he had died just means that you are seriously messed up to a level that defies comprehension. I think people like YOU are the ones who need to go ahead and end themselves. Saying that he deserved his injuries is one thing...but...wow...I'm just going to stop there...

sexisicilian

Thank you, some of us would like to live & not get killed by a drunk driver.

JenChungsBaby

Which goes to show yet again that people who drive BMW SUVs are the worst drivers in the world.

lcmarl

that might have been a smart statement if it weren't for the fact that you read the article with such a predetermined bias that you missed the fact that it wasn't an SUV...

Joe

I hope this crash teaches the lesson, that saves the life of the person that this drunk driver would have eventually killed.

Mr. Shankly

Tom Wopat?

Did the BMW have the stars and bars on the roof?

hotstepper

yeeeeehaaaaw!

wobbleSmith

good on you for surviving. now don't live up to the wretched prickhood that only a 22-year-old who drives a 5 year old BMW and is going into finance is destined for.

Bottomless Chips

I forgot that everyone who works in business or finance is a douchebag who's heartless.

And every government employee is God's gift to Earth.

Thanks for reminding of that, wobbleSmith.

wobbleSmith

as someone who works in finance, i believe i have a qualified perspective to make sweeping generalizations.

also, i'm jealous of his car. well, what was his car 4 days ago.