HALIFAX -- When Sgt. Larry Kavanagh peered through the car's frosted window, he feared he was too late to help the figure slumped in the front seat of the ice-encrusted vehicle. The veteran RCMP officer could see a woman, her face marked by a bluish tinge, her lips frozen shut and her body showing no signs of life.

He and two colleagues had been called to a walking trail about a half-hour outside Halifax last Friday after someone told police about a car that had been on the roadside for at least two days.

Then, as the officers stared at the inside of the car that glistened with ice crystals, they assumed they would soon be seeking next of kin to tell them their daughter or sister had frozen to death.

The 43-year-old woman was reported missing two days earlier. Overnight, the temperature had dipped to -19.

But when Kavanagh opened the passenger door, he saw a twitch in the woman's pinky finger. He quickly moved to the other side and called out her name.

"I noticed her left eyelid flickered," Kavanagh said in an interview yesterday.

"I looked for a pulse but her hands were like a block of ice. Then we got a faint one, so we started calling out her name and we were getting responses.

"I said, 'Boys, she's alive.' "

As an ambulance raced to the scene, the officers put an RCMP tuque on her, wrapped her in blankets and tried to revive her.

When paramedics arrived, they couldn't get an intravenous tube into either one of the woman's arms. And it was a struggle to remove her from the vehicle because her knees were partially frozen.

Const. Dave Fraser doubted whether she would make it.

"She was on her way out, there was no doubt about it," Fraser said. "It was 50-50 when she left. It didn't look too good."

Fraser couldn't believe it when he and Kavanagh walked into the woman's hospital room a few days later to see her sitting up in bed, smiling and very much alive.

"She was extremely, extremely grateful," he said. "It's pretty rewarding to look at a lady who is really on death's door and then be able to walk through the door and have her put her arms out and thank you for your help. It doesn't get any better than that.

"She's extremely delighted that she gets a second chance. It just wasn't her time."

"She was very happy when we saw her," said Kavanagh. "I think she said something like, 'Here are my guardian angels.' "