A Natchez woman &uot;left for dead&uot; off U.S. 61 north of Vicksburg remained in critical condition Tuesday at a Jackson hospital.

Workmen found Patty Rabb, 29, Saturday morning at the bottom of an embankment about 50 yards from the road.

Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace said police suspect Rabb was beaten by someone because she was too far from the road to have been injured by a passing vehicle. She was fully clothed and did not appear to have been sexually assaulted.

&uot;Her injuries were consistent with a deliberate assault,&uot; Pace said. Officials believe &uot;she could have been assaulted and thrown from the embankment.&uot;

Debra Pilgrim of Adams County, Rabb’s mother, said her daughter remained paralyzed from the chest down and unconscious.

She can only use her right arm and has a punctured lung, and her face and eyes are swollen, Pilgrim said.

&uot;(They) found her face down in the mud,&uot; Pilgrim said. &uot;Whoever did it left her for dead.&uot;

Pace would not confirm the identity of any suspects.

Rabb had only recently moved to a rooming house in Vicksburg to take a job as a waitress, her mother said. The sheriff’s office found her body after receiving a 911 call Saturday morning. Because Rabb had no identification on her, two investigators spent all day Saturday passing around photos to identify her, Pace said.