GRAND MARAIS, Minn. -- A woman who shivered through a month-long vigil awaiting signals from flying saucers froze to death in a car at the end of a desolate trail along snowy Loon Lake, authorities said Friday.
LaVerne Landis, 48, St. Paul, a widowed mother of five grown children, was found dead in the car parked by a lake.
Gerald Flach, 38, West St. Paul, her companion during a month-long vigil, suffered from chills, dehydration and starvation. He crawled a quarter-mile through snow for help.
Cook County Deputy Sheriff Frank Redfield said trappers were on the lake and authorities had checked the area the week before Flach sought help Monday.
Mrs. Landis wore open sandals, a sweater, slacks and a coat, and her feet and hands were wrapped in torn strips of blanket when she was found dead Monday, said rescue squad member Bruce Kerfoot.
'Flach said he had been receiving messages through Mrs. Landis from some higher power,' Redfield said. 'The most recent message directed them to go to the end of the Gunflint Trail and await further messages.'
The trail is a wilderness road that ends in the 1 million acre Boundary Waters Canoe Area along the Canadian border.
Redfield said no charges will be filed against Flach.
'There's no indication of any wrongdoings,' he said. 'These people kind of believed in flying saucers.'
Dr. Michael DeBevic, who treated Flach at Cook County North Shore Hospital, said the couple apparently ran out of food after a week and did not drink any water the last four days of their ordeal because the lake had frozen. They survived on vitamins.
'He is very lucky to be alive,' DeBevic said of Flach. 'He went a quarter mile through knee-deep snow, walking and crawling. He was lucky to have survived that in the condition he was in.'
Following his release from the hospital Thursday, family members took Flach to Fargo, N.D., for psychiatric treatment, DeBevic said.
Sheriff's deputies spottedFlach's car parked a month ago on an access road to Loon Lake, 41 miles northwest of Grand Marais. Authorities made weekly checks but they did not order them to leave since they violated no laws.
Flach told deputies they were doing research for his university thesis on hypothermia, the lowering of body temperature.
