Woman found buried in snow found after three days

A 55-year-old woman who disappeared Friday during a blizzard that buried southern Ontario is in critical condition in a Hamilton hospital, where she's undergoing treatment for hypothermia.

Donna Molnar, of Ancaster, was found yesterday at about 12:30 p.m. by a dog and its handler who were part of the team searching for the woman.

Ray Lau was trudging through almost knee-high snow when his dog, Ace, took off across the windswept farm field.

Ace started barking at the ground, signalling to Lau he had found her. What Lau had not expected was that Molnar would still be breathing.

"When I came up to her, she was covered in snow, just her face and her neckline were exposed," he said. "I was surprised she was alive."

Molnar was found a few hundred metres from her SUV, lying in a windswept Ancaster field that had been buffeted by back-to-back weekend storms.

She survived almost three days of below-freezing temperatures and biting winds wearing little more than a winter jacket.

When she was found, there was very little snow underneath her, leading police to believe she had been there since she vanished.

Police said the snow's insulating effect kept her alive.

"She's a testament to the fact that it's possible," said Staff Sgt. Mark Cox, who co-ordinated the search effort.

Cox said she's in danger of losing some extremities, though she's expected to survive.

Molnar's ordeal started during a violent snowstorm on Friday.

Her SUV was found Saturday night and officers started searching an area about a kilometre wide on Sunday morning.

With even more snow covering the large search area, crews returned yesterday, and after a few hours, found Molnar.