Alabama woman found after 25 days in woods, not sure how she got there

TROY, Ala. (WLS) -- Lisa Theris says she's lucky to be alive after she survived nearly a month lost in the wilderness.

The 25-year-old Alabama woman has scars all over from the thorns and the bug bites in the woods and she says the poison ivy still stings.

"It was all about finding the road or finding a person," said Theris.

She'd been missing for 25 days, when a woman driving down a country road saw what she first thought was a dead animal, and called police.

The radiology student and former waitress was naked and afraid.

"I couldn't even hear any cars the whole time I was out there until the end," said Theris.

Theris lived at home and her family feared she was dead. She was last seen on July 18, and based on this photo taken shortly before she disappeared, police think she may have lost 40 pounds. She tells us she survived eating berries, mushrooms, and drinking puddles of water.

"If it rained I'd have to like squeeze the water out of my hair and drink it," said Theris.

But how she ended up lost in the first place is curious, and neither she nor police explained on Thursday morning. Police do say she was with two men she had recently met, when one of the men allegedly burglarized a cabin. How she got from their company to the woods she would not say, and much of it she says she doesn't remember.

Asked if Theris thought she was drugged, she answered, "It would make sense... but I'm not sure... I don't know, for sure."

She admits that around the time she went missing, she was supposed to appear in court on a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge. That case was dropped last week Thursday when they presumed she had died. She walked out of the woods two days later.

Police said plainly they do believe she survived in the woods, but say there's more to the story.

Theris said she is legally blind and had no cellphone. Even if she did, the cell signals in the area are poor.