Episodi

  • Folded Jacket, Dry on a Post: He Vanished for 53 Hours

    Folded Jacket, Dry on a Post: He Vanished for 53 Hours
    Oct 15 2026
    Folded Jacket, Dry on a Post: He Vanished for 53 Hours

    A dry, neatly folded bright orange jacket sat on an aluminum-capped cedar post after an hour of steady rain-found by a hiker who photographed it and called dispatch. Sixteen searchers, bloodhounds, and a boot print would later point to a single step and then silence; how did a careful 32-year-old hiker disappear for 53 hours with no trail to follow?

    In this episode, we walk through the timeline from Russell Smith’s morning sign-in to the moment he was found hypothermic three and a half miles off his planned route, presenting the evidence that puzzled search-and-rescue crews and the question that kept them searching: what erased his trail?

    Person: Russell Smith
    Date: May 11, 2019
    Location: Pinehart National Forest
    Event: Found hypothermic after 53 hours
    Investigator: Patricia Vo

    - Russell signed the Pinehart North trail register at 9:47 a.m. and his truck was the only vehicle in the lot at 9:30 when the gate opened.
    - Rain began at 9:58 a.m., lasted 65 minutes, and deposited roughly 0.5 inches, stopping at 11:03 a.m.
    - Thomas Green found the folded, dry orange jacket on the aluminum-capped cedar post at 11:42 a.m.
    - Russell left the trail about 1.3 miles in while following a beagle-type dog he never found and which had no reported owner.
    - A single deep left-foot boot print matching Russell’s lug pattern was found about 80 yards north of the junction in a seasonal drainage with no preceding or following prints.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    18 min
  • She Walked Into the Forest and Lost Nine Days: The Vicki Harris Case

    She Walked Into the Forest and Lost Nine Days: The Vicki Harris Case
    Oct 14 2026
    She Walked Into the Forest and Lost Nine Days: The Vicki Harris Case

    A single hiking boot with a dry sock washed up on a flooded bank days after Vicki Harris vanished, despite everything around it being saturated; her Merrell Moab size 8 boot still held dried red clay that hadn’t softened. How did Vicki disappear for nine days, leave scent trails that search dogs followed for nine miles, and reappear with no memory two hundred yards from the trailhead?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events from Vicki’s permit timestamp at 7:41 a.m. on April 4 to the moment her sister reported her missing on April 10, laying out the puzzling evidence that resisted tidy explanations. What does the boot, the silent Garmin, the nine-mile canine track, and the oval depression in a meadow mean for how Vicki spent those nine days?

    Person: Vicki Harris
    Date: April 4-10, 2019
    Location: Sulphur Fork / Sable Creek ridge area
    Status: Found alive after nine days with no memory
    Case: Missing person with unexplained evidence

    - Permit stub timestamp: entry at 7:41 a.m. on April 4
    - Last Garmin inReach ping: 8:52 a.m. the same morning, seventy-seven minutes after arrival
    - Boot details: women’s size 8 Merrell Moab, granite gray, double-bow laced, sock inside dry
    - Search dogs: followed Vicki’s scent for nine miles and stopped together at a lower meadow
    - Meadow anomaly: six-by-four-foot oval depression photographed and flagged for two months before disappearing

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    20 min
  • The Boots on the Anvil: She Vanished Where No Trail Goes

    The Boots on the Anvil: She Vanished Where No Trail Goes
    Oct 13 2026
    The Boots on the Anvil: She Vanished Where No Trail Goes

    When searchers found a dry pair of size eight hiking boots on a granite shelf called the Anvil, their laces tucked inside and toes pointed toward an 800-foot canyon drop, the trail to that shelf led to nowhere - no mud, no debris, no path. A science teacher who ran six miles before sunrise and packed a bear canister with two days of food vanished after a textbook four-mile track that simply ended at a saddle; how do you disappear where no trail goes?

    In this episode, we tell what was found on and off the trail, who knew Rhonda Bowers, and how standard search procedures met unexplained evidence; can the boots, the buckled pack and the dogs’ scent lead to an answer?

    Person: Rhonda Bowers
    Date: March 11-15, 2019
    Location: Sable Creek backcountry, Breck Notch and the Anvil, Morrow County, Oregon
    Status: Missing
    Occupation: High school earth science and chemistry teacher

    - Boots: size eight, dry, laces tucked inside, toes pointed south toward an 800-foot canyon.
    - Pack: found March 15 sitting upright against a rock, rain cover on, bear canister inside with two days of untouched food.
    - Sleeping bag: rated below freezing, dry and undeployed inside the pack.
    - Scent trail: dogs tracked a clear four-mile route that ended abruptly at the 6,400-foot saddle of Breck Notch.
    - Pack detail: hipbelt buckled and lid pocket empty; volunteer log noted placement "inconsistent with voluntary set-down" or "staged placement."

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    18 min
  • She Vanished Three Miles Away - Her Bow Waited At The Cabin

    She Vanished Three Miles Away - Her Bow Waited At The Cabin
    Oct 12 2026
    She Vanished Three Miles Away - Her Bow Waited At The Cabin

    Ice-cold evidence: a compound bow, nocked with a carbon arrow and a broadhead, stood propped and frozen against a cabin propane meter while its owner was last seen more than three miles away in the opposite direction. How did her bow end up upright and intact at the cabin with no record of how it crossed that distance?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from the morning a septic contractor found the bow to the search that spread across twelve thousand acres of Idaho backcountry, and we ask what really happened during the gap in Crystal Larsen’s memory that let her vanish and return missing gear and hours she cannot explain.

    Person: Crystal Larsen
    Age: 28
    Date: February 19, 2024
    Location: Dunmore Tract, Cavell County, Idaho
    Status: Missing memory for several hours after six days in the backcountry

    - Bow: compound bow, fully nocked with a carbon arrow and broadhead, string snapped and coiled against the riser, found upright against the cabin propane meter at 8:14 AM.
    - Distance: Crystal was last confirmed more than three miles from the cabin in the opposite direction from where the bow was found.
    - Time on land: Crystal had been on the Dunmore Tract since Friday (four days before the bow was found).
    - Cabin scene: sleeping bag on cot, thermos on table, half a granola bar on counter, gear bag in unlocked truck by woodpile; cabin door unlocked.
    - Track evidence: boot impressions under southern stand estimated no more than 48 hours old and orange flagging tape tied 30 yards north of the stand; canine scent trail moved north from the southern stand toward the drainage below the northern stand.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    22 min
  • She Went In With Two Boots - One Came Back Standing

    She Went In With Two Boots - One Came Back Standing
    Oct 11 2026
    She Went In With Two Boots - One Came Back Standing

    One orange women's size eight Muck Boot was found standing upright against a lichen-covered boulder at 6,800 feet, laced and double-knotted with a dry, unworn-looking white athletic sock inside; there were no tracks in thirty feet of unbroken snow. How did a boot appear between a search sweep and a birder's sunrise walk with the wearer still missing?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from a Tuesday morning diner routine to a trailhead sign-in and a disappearance on the Tenmile Trail in Carraway National Wilderness, tracking what was logged at the scene, who found the boot, and the unanswered question about the one detail the official report never fully explained: how the boot got there.

    Person: Cheryl Hicks
    Date: January 8-9, 2019
    Location: Carraway National Wilderness, Tenmile Trail, 6,800 feet
    Status: Missing
    Finder: Nicole McCarthy

    - Cheryl Hicks signed the trail log at 10:23 a.m. listing "party of three" and an estimated return of 2:00 p.m.
    - Cheryl left her grandchildren Mia (age 9) and Bryce (age 6) locked in her car at about 10:23 a.m.; Mia heard her say, "I just need a few minutes."
    - Trail crew supervisor Owen Tate's dashcam placed a woman matching Cheryl's description on the trail about six minutes in, around 10:44 a.m., walking alone uphill.
    - Amanda Farrell's SAR team swept the lower trail on January 8 and logged the lichen-covered boulder; they did not record a boot at that time.
    - At 7:15 a.m. on January 9, Nicole McCarthy found a single orange right Muck Boot, women's size 8, standing against the boulder with a dry white athletic sock inside and unbroken snow for thirty feet around it.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    19 min
  • The Boy Who Watched a Burn and Never Came Back

    The Boy Who Watched a Burn and Never Came Back
    Oct 10 2026
    The Boy Who Watched a Burn and Never Came Back

    The ash-covered coffee cup waited untouched for fourteen months beside a staked tent in a formally closed post-fire area, and a boarding pass tucked in a paperback was the only paper trail - so how did a twenty-two-year-old with a camera walk into the Vansen Burn and simply vanish? What did William Jenkins record in the last four days that outlasted him and finally forced a team to ask a different question?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from William telling his mother he was going camping to the moment a delivery rider spotted the abandoned campsite through a snag line, and we trace the search, the landscape, and the footage left behind to understand what happened in the Vansen Burn.

    Person: William Jenkins
    Location: Vansen Burn, Garfield County
    Date: October 7 (camping departure); October 9 (boarding pass issued); December (tent discovered)
    Event: Fourteen-month missing person case; campsite discovered December by delivery rider
    Item: Four days of time-stamped footage found at campsite

    - William Jenkins was twenty-two years old and grew up in Pickett, Garfield County.
    - A boarding pass issued on October 9 was in William Jenkins’s name for a flight from Billings, Montana to Denver, Colorado.
    - The coffee cup beside the tent had been there since October and was layered with months of undisturbed ash.
    - The campsite was found by a seventeen-year-old delivery rider, Warren Stevens, who called it in at 6:52 a.m, on a Tuesday in December.
    - A six-day search was conducted earlier in the terrain, with assumptions rewritten on Day Five before finding the right question to ask.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    20 min
  • Found Alive: Her Husband's Jacket, A Stranger's Mylar, Montana Night

    Found Alive: Her Husband's Jacket, A Stranger's Mylar, Montana Night
    Oct 9 2026
    Found Alive: Her Husband's Jacket, A Stranger's Mylar, Montana Night

    A freezing Montana morning revealed a woman alive in a drainage ditch, wrapped in a silver mylar blanket and wearing a tan Carhartt jacket marked "D. Young" - a jacket that had been donated months earlier and later found on a nail inside an unmapped three-sided cache shed two miles from the road. How did a man’s jacket and an unexplained emergency blanket end up as the last lifelines for a woman who had been missing for three days in sub‑20°F nights? What chain of human decisions connected them?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from a donation box at the Dearborn Flats Lions Club through a hunting guide’s private caches to the morning a road‑grader operator found Melissa Young alive in Owendale National Forest, and we ask whether practical generosity or unseen logistics explain the items that kept her warm.

    Person: Melissa Young
    Date: November 14, 2019
    Location: Owendale National Forest, Dearborn Flats
    Status: Found alive after three days missing
    Person: Daniel Young

    - Melissa Young was 38 years old when she was found wrapped in a silver mylar blanket on November 14, 2019.
    - Daniel Young owned two tan Carhartt men's extra-large jackets both marked "D. Young"; he donated the one with a torn lining in February 2019.
    - The donated jacket was logged by the Dearborn Flats Lions Club and given in March 2019 to hunting guide Victor Ames.
    - Victor Ames maintained unmapped supply caches and died of a heart attack in August 2019, eleven weeks before Melissa entered the forest.
    - The jacket and a folded mylar emergency blanket were found on a nail inside an unmapped three-sided corrugated metal cache shed roughly 30 feet from Forest Service Road Nine-Echo.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    15 min
  • Eleven Sandstone Cairns: The Trail That Led Her Deeper

    Eleven Sandstone Cairns: The Trail That Led Her Deeper
    Oct 8 2026
    Eleven Sandstone Cairns: The Trail That Led Her Deeper

    A lineman found a single, perfectly balanced stack of flat reddish sandstone forty feet from a utility pole-and following it revealed ten more, each roughly one mile apart, forming an almost perfectly straight eleven-mile line through Hatchett National Forest. Whoever built them had carried an estimated minimum of 330 pounds of sandstone from a formation sixty miles away; why would someone haul that much rock into dense, unmarked backcountry and lay a precise trail to a missing woman?

    In this episode, we walk through the sequence of discoveries from the utility pole to the final coordinate, laying out the recorded facts from searchers, neighbors, and specialists, and we ask what motive or method could explain a straight, sandstone trail into a part of forest the missing hiker did not plan to enter.

    Person: Gina Dempsey
    Date: October 14 (discovery) and October 9 (departure)
    Location: Hatchett National Forest
    Status: Missing (entered forest on October 9; reported October 13)
    Geologist: Howard Beck

    - Lineman Gina Dempsey found the first cairn at 8:15 AM, 40 feet from a utility pole on the eastern edge of Hatchett National Forest.
    - Search coordinator Gary Zimmerman documented a total of eleven cairns on October 14, each about one mile apart along an eleven-mile corridor.
    - Each cairn consisted of 3 to 5 flat reddish sandstone slabs, with individual cairn weights estimated at 30-40 pounds.
    - Geologist Howard Beck identified sandstone in samples as matching formations in Greaver Basin, approximately 60 miles south of Hatchett National Forest.
    - The eleven cairns deviated less than 60 feet from a straight line across the mapped coordinates.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    17 min