A Tucson man badly injured while riding a new dirt bike on the northwest side spent four nights in a hole in the desert before being found by a man who summoned help, his family and authorities said.
Martin Villalobos, 32, who underwent surgery for injuries suffered in the crash, was found Sunday in a long, shallow hole four days after crashing his dirt bike and injuring himself to the point where he couldn’t get up in a desert area near West Ina Road and Interstate 10.
He survived through some of the coldest nights Tucson has seen this winter, with overnight temperatures ranging in the mid-20s to lower 30s during that stretch.
“He’s just telling the doctors that he is glad to be alive,” said Alicia Rodriguez, who has a daughter with Villalobos. She said Villalobos remains in some pain but is in good spirits.
According to authorities and those close to Villalobos, his survival is a miracle.
In his account to Rodriguez, Villalobos said the ordeal started when he, an inexperienced rider on a new dirt bike, decided to take a ride along one of the washes near his home Wednesday afternoon.
Rodriguez said Villalobos was wearing some safety gear: “He did wear a helmet and goggles, but I would not call him an experienced rider.”
Villalobos, who lives alone, was riding south of the Ina Road and I-10 interchange, parallel to the Union Pacific railroad tracks. That’s when he came upon a seemingly simple obstacle.
“To him, it seemed like just a small hole,” Rodriguez said. Then: “He says he just remembered his helmet flying off and he was laying on the ground and his motorcycle was a few feet away from him.”
Villalobos soon realized he couldn’t move his legs but had some mobility in his arms. He reached into his pants for his cellphone to call for help. The battery was dead, Rodriguez said.
He tried crawling some, but the hole was long and nearly 3 feet deep. Plus he was injured and in pain, she said.
What followed, Villalobos told Rodriguez, “was the most horrible thing that he’s been through. He says he was screaming. He couldn’t hear anyone. There were no signs of life.”
What he could hear was the passing of trains and the drone of cars on the interstate.
Martin Villalobos
One night, after Villalobos had passed out, he said he was attacked by a coyote. “He said he just started screaming and it scared the coyote away,” Rodriguez said.
When no one had heard from Villalobos by Friday — almost two days after the crash — Rodriguez decided to contact the Pima County Sheriff’s Department and report him as a missing person.
A news release from the department said he was last seen about 4 p.m. Feb. 2 riding near a wash near West River and North Shannon roads.
But even after considerable media coverage, Friday and Saturday passed with no sign of Villalobos. Rodriguez organized a Facebook group dedicated to finding Villalobos, all to no avail.
Then, on Sunday evening, Rodriguez said a “miracle” happened.
Around 6 p.m., a man, who Villalobos remembers going by the name Coleman, wandered near the hole.
While the man’s presence was not exactly a miracle, Marana Police Department public information officer Sgt. Abel Samano said the area is not frequented by people.
“There’s not a lot of traffic down there,” Samano said. “This person just happened to be walking by, saw that there was the motorcyclist down, saw that the person could not move. He was very lucky too, that this guy happened to be walking by.”
Villalobos told family he had passed out and woke to the man’s voice. He said the man asked if he could ride the dirt bike.
Desperate for help, Villalobos offered up not only the bike but his Apple watch and other valuables to the man in hopes of rescue. Instead, the man walked to a Circle K on Ina and tried to tell customers about the dirt biker in need of help.
“He was talking about how some dude crashed on a motorcycle and he was talking to a bunch of customers and no one was really listening to him,” said store cashier Andrew Allen.
A regular customer at the Circle K remembered media reports of a missing biker. Allen said headed out to the desert area to see if there was any truth to the man’s claims.
Allen said he came upon Villalobos and called 911. Allen said he stayed with Villalobos until police and medical personnel arrived. “He was begging for God to help him,” Allen said. “And like, he thought that this was his last steps. Like he thought he was dying.”
Officers rendered first aid to Villalobos before medical personnel arrived to more thoroughly treat his wounds and take him to a hospital. “He was exhausted but just so, so happy to be found,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said Villalobos has told her on multiple occasions that he is glad to be alive. However, she and Samano said that even though Villalobos had taken some precautions, there are other layers of safety to riding beyond protective gear.
“Definitely make sure your phone is charged,” Rodriguez said. “And let someone know when you go out.”
