The medical mystification added depth.

The setting — the vast, flat, frozen landscape of rural Minnesota in December — provided atmosphere.

Jean Hilliard appeared on national television programs.

The Today Show was among them.

She was young, apparently healthy, and articulate about the portions of her experience she could recall — which were limited, since she had no memory of the six hours on the porch and only fragmentary memory of the immediate aftermath.

She became known locally and nationally as “The Miracle Girl from Lengby, Minnesota.”