PINE TWP, Mercer County — A 64-year-old Grove City area woman intentionally slit her throat but still managed to walk in her bare feet some distance dressed only in a coat in the snow and below-zero wind chills early Monday morning.

If not for two maintenance workers at the U.S. Investigations Services office at the Pine Grove Plaza, the woman possibly could have died of her wounds or from hypothermia, authorities said.

"She was moaning, and you could tell she was in a lot of trouble,"said Bob Burnett of Harrisville, one of the USIS workers who rescued the woman. "She was really messed up."

The woman remains hospitalized in Ohio. State police, meanwhile, continue to look into the circumstances of what is being investigated as an attempted suicide.

The condition of the woman, who authorities did not identify, was not known this morning. Police would only say she was admitted at St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Youngstown for "advance treatment."

Police believe the woman was in the bedroom at her home about 5:30 a.m. when she used a knife to slash both her wrists and her throat.

Trooper Michael Fennell did not indicate the depth of the self-inflicted wounds but reported she "lost a substantial amount of blood."

For unknown reasons, the woman put on a coat with no other clothes underneath and walked for about one-tenth of a mile to the USISbuilding.

Fennell noted the temperature about that time was at or near zero.

Burnett said he and a co-worker were about to shovel the rear parking lot when they spotted the woman walking behind the building.

"She had no coat on, no hat or scarf," he said. "She had nothing on her feet. They were bare and pretty frozen on the bottom. She obviously needed help."

The two men rushed to help. Only when they got closer did they realize the kind of emergency they suddenly faced.

The workers noticed two large slits on the side of her neck.

"She said she tried to kill herself," Burnett said. "They were pretty good size cuts. They were pretty deep. We put a rag on them to stop the bleeding."

He and his co-worker then saw the woman's other wounds — cuts on her hands and wrists.

"She was in pain," Burnett said. "She tried to talk but she couldn't, really. Maybe it was because of hypothermia. I think she was going into shock."

The frigid temperatures, Burnett wondered, could have been a mixed blessing.

"I think what really saved her was the cold,"he said. "It pretty much stopped the bleeding. The blood had already clotted."

The men helped the woman inside the building and called 911.

A company surveillance camera captured on tape some of the rescue.

Superior Ambulance paramedics treated her before she was taken to Grove City Medical Center. Amedical helicopter then flew the woman to the Ohio hospital.

Burnett and his co-worker, a bit shaken from the experience, nonetheless, finished out their shifts.

"You do what you got to do,"he said. "That's what we did."