In an incident like no other, a Columbian woman who went missing two years ago was found floating in the sea?- very much alive -?on Saturday. Fishermen passing by spotted Angelica Gaitan floating off the coast of Colombia, reported The Sun.?
The 46-year-old woman was found by fishermen Rolando Visbal and his friend. She was spotted around two kilometres away from the shore of Puerto Columbia at around 6 in the morning.
The rescue was captured by the two fishermen as they spotted Gaitan floating in the sea. The two men steered their boat towards her and according to a New York Post report, they initially mistook her for a piece of driftwood. After she raised her hand to signal for help, Mr Visbal and his friend maneuvered their boat towards her.?
In the video, they can be seen pulling Ms Gaitan into the boat. She was reportedly suffering from hypothermia after staying afloat for more than eight hours.
Reportedly, her first words after being rescued were, "I was born again, God did not want me to die."?
Upon identification, it was revealed that she suffered years of domestic abuse at the hands of her ex-husband and decided to run away in 2018.?
She told RCN Radio, "For 20 years I had a toxic relationship. The abuse began during the first pregnancy. He beat me, he violently abused me. In the second pregnancy the abuse continued and I could not get away from him because the girls were small."
However, according to reports, the police asked her to leave the shelter when her husband moved cities.?
"I did not want to continue with my life. I wanted to end everything, I had no help from anywhere not even from my family, because this man kept me away from my social circle, that's why I didn't want to continue living," said Ms Gaitan.
She revealed that she decided to "jump into the sea" but has no recollection of anything after she slipped into unconsciousness.?
"The man who rescued me in the middle of the sea told me that I was unconscious, floating," she said.
However, local media tracked down her daughter, Alejandra Castiblanco, who rubbished the domestic abuse allegations and also said that she did not know about her mother's whereabouts for the last two years.
Ms Castiblanco and her sister are now raising money to bring their mother to the capital Bogota where she can be "taken care of by family."