'You Could Tell His Perseverance'

Woman Describes Sight of Missing Teen Lying Near Road

A college student who was missing for more than a week before he was found on the side of a Prince George's County road Saturday is in good condition at a hospital, but his brother said yesterday that family members won't coax him for details about what happened until he has recovered.

Julian McCormick, 18, disappeared Sept. 1 after he left Bowie State University, where he is a first-year student, en route to his girlfriend's dorm at the University of Maryland in College Park. He never showed up, and his family and friends began a massive search that ended about 6 p.m. Saturday when a passenger in a car noticed him lying next to a guardrail near Powder Mill and Soil Conservation roads, close to the Baltimore-Washington Parkway near Beltsville.

"When he's fully recovered, he'll tell us what happened," said McCormick's older brother, Christopher Gray, who spoke on behalf of his family. "The only information that is given out will come from him."

U.S. Park Police are investigating the incident, because it occurred on the edge of federal parkland. Police reported Saturday that McCormick's Honda Civic was found upside down in a deep creek bed that runs under the road where he was found. Sgt. Robert Lachance, a Park Police spokesman, did not return calls to his cellphone yesterday.

Leigh Ann Hess, 30, of Bowie said yesterday that she was on the passenger side of a car driven by her mother when she noticed a bloody, muddy, soaking-wet man lying on the shoulder of the road. He was not in direct sight of the road and tried to signal cars by waving his fingers, she said.

"You could tell he had been lying there and had been out there for a while," she said. "You could tell his perseverance."

Hess said she jumped out of the car and approached McCormick, who appeared dehydrated and undernourished. The teenager didn't know what day it was but was able to tell her his name, address and other information.

At least a half-dozen other cars also stopped, and emergency rescue teams arrived within minutes. McCormick, who was dehydrated and had minor scrapes and bruises, was taken to Washington Hospital Center, where he remained yesterday.

The news came as a huge relief to family and friends, including McCormick's girlfriend, Flor Orellana-Diaz, who had launched a Facebook campaign that attracted hundreds. Orellana-Diaz and McCormick met while they were students at Laurel High School in Prince George's, she said yesterday, and had been dating for eight months.

After he didn't arrive to pick her up, she called his cellphone 127 times, she said. High school friends were planning a candlelight vigil when they learned that their classmate had been found.

James McCormick told reporters Saturday that it took his son more than a week to force open the driver's side door and escape. Authorities have not revealed the extent of McCormick's injuries, and many questions remain about how the 6-foot, 175-pound student survived last week's potentially deadly heat without much food or water in a cramped front seat.

"There's no exact amount of time someone can or can't make it," said Eric Glasser, Georgetown University Hospital's assistant chief of service for the emergency department, when asked how one might survive such conditions.

People react to dehydration and starvation differently depending on their health and physical condition, he said. Usually, people can survive days, even weeks, without food because their bodies will break down fat and muscle. But without water, dehydration can quickly lead to kidney failure, Glasser said.

Heat can easily worsen dehydration and cramping from being pinned in one spot for a long period of time, he added.

Christopher Gray said the family is not sure when his brother will be released from the hospital -- or when he will be ready to talk about what happened.