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Wearing a pair of dark sunglasses, Tiffany Slaton stood in front of a room of reporters and recounted the grueling details of her against-the-odds survival in the California mountains.
After setting out on a three-day hiking trip in the Huntington Lake region, the 28-year-old hiker from Georgia claims she fell off a cliff and was unconscious for two hours, and needed to put her leg in a splint.
She began trekking in search of help after her GPS was unable to provide a route back to the main road, but which could locate a Starbucks which was 18 miles away, she said.
Slaton disappeared on April 20, but reportedly survived for some three weeks in the wilderness, eating wild leeks, boiling snow melt for water and even surviving 13 snowstorms despite losing both her tent and her sleeping bag in her fall.
She was found by authorities in a cabin on May 14.
“I ended up on this very long, arduous journey that I journaled to try and keep sane, and eventually managed to get to civilization,” Slaton told reporters at the conference two days later. “I haven't really gone through all of the details. I ran out of a lot of food after five days, but I will do my best to answer any questions that you may have.”
But while authorities and Slaton’s family were overjoyed at her safe return, many others have raised their eyebrows at the veracity of her tale.
“Something‘s very off about the story. I don’t believe her at all,” wrote one user in reply to the press conference, posted on the Fresno County Sheriff’s Facebook page. “I think she’s just looking for fame or money.”
Added another: “I'm sorry, not sorry. This lady put a lot of lives at risk by being reckless with her own … She is not a hero and people should not glorify her or her story as one.”
“I’m glad to see that other people don’t believe this story,” added a third. “So many things don’t add up, I hope this office investigates fully since resources were used. It’s embarrassing to think people believe someone fell off a cliff, survived two hours unconscious (guess she was timing it), popped her knee back into place, and traveled 20 miles after splinting her leg.”
A GoFundMe page for Slaton, organized by her family, was shut down on Monday, after raising more than $23,500. Her parents said there had been “negative feedback that has arose from these events.”
“It has taken a lot to endure the attacks and attention asking for help has brought us,” Slaton’s mother, Fredrina Slaton, wrote on GoFundMe.
According to the Fresno County Sheriff, Slaton's family reported her missing on April 29 after not hearing from her for nine days. The fundraiser was started a week later and continued to accept donations for a while after she was found.
Tony Botti, a spokesperson for the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office, said that the department is still investigating various elements of Slaton’s story, including her exact route and how her phone was able to access GPS while she could not call 911.
“We can only work with the information she told us because there are no other independent witnesses,” Botti said in a statement to The Los Angeles Times. “If there are inaccuracies or embellishments, we really can’t do anything about it.”
Fresno County Sheriff John Zanoni called Slaton’s journey “an incredible story of perseverance, determination and survival,” saying it is “something that you may see on TV that they would make movies about.”
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