An Arkansas State University student and two exchange students were missing for 30 hours.
A thrill-seeker's wife became a hero when she jumped into action and alerted authorities that she believed her husband and two others had become lost inside a cave they had set out to explore.
Arkansas State University senior Casey Sherwood, 25, and two teenaged exchange students from Japan, Daiki Itoh, 19, and Daisuke Takagi, 18, set out to explore the state’s Batesville cave system. But they couldn't find their way out.
Rescue crews began searching after his wife, Katherine, raised the alarm and called 911.
“Had it not been for my wife then people would have waited until probably next week,” he said. “I honestly think we could have made it through a few more days in there but I’m glad we made it out sooner than that.”
Thanks to his wife's heroics, Sherwood told Inside Edition: "I love her just as much as ever."
Katherine said that the group tried to convince her to go on the adventure, but she refused. When they did not return home on Wednesday, she got worried.
"I was worried all the time," she said. "I stayed positive and I prayed."
Inside the cave, the group shouted, even sang, for help until rescue teams heard them.
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Sherwood told Inside Edition: “Every five or ten minutes we'd make a really loud whistle or a really loud shout for help, sometimes I would even actually sing a few songs that I knew.”
Finally, rescuers heard them after 30 hours underground and they were rescued Thursday.
“I realized now that we are lost so best thing to do right now is not panic and hunker down,” Sherwood told Inside Edition.
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Sherwood says the temperatures underground were freezing.
“We had to sit down and huddle up together with our backs touching each other to keep our body core temperature in. Also, tuck our arms inside of our shirts and keep warm air to keep our body temperature up," he said.
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