Ron Wilkins

rwilkins@jconline.com

Woodland Elementary School teacher Krista Perdue's life slowly ebbed away from her in the sweltering heat Monday as she lay injured, dehydrated and unnoticed under trees near a retention pond.

"The doc said she was probably 12 hours from dying,” said Sam Perdue, Krista's husband, during an exclusive interview Wednesday with the Journal & Courier.

Krista Perdue remains hospitalized but is fine, Sam Perdue said. She's hydrated, talking and is expected to make a full recovery, he said.

That's a far cry from Tuesday when rescuers found her beside a retention pond after 39 hours of being a missing person — a story that garnered national attention.

Krista Perdue took some prescription pain medicine early Monday and became disoriented. She left her family's east side home, leaving her purse, phone and other personal belongings. She walked about a quarter of a mile to the southeast side of a retention pond. There, she got into trouble.

Police seeking answers as teacher recovers

"What she recalls is slipping on the bank and hitting her head," Tippecanoe County Sheriff Barry Richard said.

She quickly became dehydrated in Monday's 90-degree temperatures.

Krista Perdue had taken the pain medicine to cope with a chronic digestion problem that prevents her from vomiting.

She ate something on the way home from the family's vacation in New York state, and it didn't agree with her, Sam Perdue said. She was in bed sick all day Sunday, and Sam Perdue slept in another bedroom Sunday night to let her rest.

“She’s in a lot of pain when she’s like that," Sam Perdue said, explaining they've endured this before and it takes about two days for his wife to recover. "She’s dry heaving and pulling muscles and stuff.

“When you’re emotional like that, you don’t make good choices.”

After noticing his wife missing Monday, Sam Perdue drove the neighborhoods looking for her. He checked the hospitals before calling police to file a report.

Sam Perdue even stopped at the pond. He scanned the fields and water for his wife, but the weeds were too tall to see anything in the vast field, and the pond was so low anything in it would have been visible.

“She’s a city slicker girl," he said. "I can hardly get her on a path. She can’t stand bugs or anything.”

So he looked in other places.

On Tuesday evening, a drone with a camera attached spotted what might have been a person lying under trees near the water. Rescuers ran to the spot and discovered Krista Perdue, who was semiconscious and unable to speak, Richard said.

When Krista Perdue's missing teacher story hit the Journal & Courier, Sam Perdue knew some people whom he never met would leave comments on the internet stories, accusing him of being responsible for his wife's disappearance.

“I know how stuff works," Sam Perdue said. "I suspected it was going on.”

What's important to Sam Perdue, a teacher at Dayton Elementary School, is that people know that his wife is going to be fine.

He hopes parents of his former and future students remember that he never was a suspect in his wife's 39-hour disappearance — a point Richard confirmed.

Sam Perdue also experienced much of the good from the community during his wife's disappearance.

“I wanted to thank everyone for their positive thoughts," he said. "The Tippecanoe Sheriff’s Department has just been phenomenal. They’re so awesome. I can't say enough nice things about them.”

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