Episodi

  • Nine Days, One Wrong Fork, A Runner Who Walked Out Alive

    Nine Days, One Wrong Fork, A Runner Who Walked Out Alive
    Oct 19 2026
    Nine Days, One Wrong Fork, A Runner Who Walked Out Alive

    Fear tightens when every mile could be the last: a bib folded on dark schist, a runner with a fractured leg, and nine days of searching that kept missing her signals - how did she survive when rescuers were looking the other way?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline and evidence from the Harlan Ridge Trail Marathon disappearance to the moment she walked out, laying out what was found, what was missed, and the single decision that redirected nine days of search effort - how did one wrong fork nearly cost a rescue?

    Person: Emily Burns
    Age: 54
    Event: Harlan Ridge Trail Marathon, September 7
    Location: Sangrove Wilderness, high-desert canyon country
    Search duration: 9 days

    - Bib number 2847 with a September 7 race date was found folded on dark schist eleven miles from the nearest marked trail.
    - Emily carried a two-liter water bladder, foil emergency blanket, mylar poncho, folding knife, two protein bars, four gels, and a small first aid kit with a water filter.
    - Last confirmed sighting was by volunteer Chris Adler at approximately 9:40 a.m, near mile 16, heading east and looking calm.
    - Emily entered a drainage gully after mile 16 where three forks split; she took the right-hand, least-traveled fork rather than the wider center fork.
    - At the shelter alcove rescuers found on day eight there were at least three distinct ash layers from fires and strips of mylar woven into the entrance rocks.

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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 Boot on Ridgeback Spur: How a Mountain Hid Her Eleven Days

    The Boot on Ridgeback Spur: How a Mountain Hid Her Eleven Days
    Oct 18 2026
    The Boot on Ridgeback Spur: How a Mountain Hid Her Eleven Days

    Danger threaded through a size-seven La Sportiva Trango left on a logging road - laces tied, wool sock damp, no blood - and a young geologist still walked away from the map. A solo climber survived eleven days with a broken ankle, two liters of water, and forty-one pages of notes while a search team hunted the wrong drainage; how did the mountain hide her in plain sight?

    In this episode, we lay out the sequence of events from Denise Larsen’s approach to Merchant’s Horn through the fall that broke her ankle, her improvised field surgery, and the eleven-day movement that eluded rescuers. How did a two-hundred-meter navigational error and an uncharted face reroute both her route and the entire search?

    Person: Denise Larsen
    Location: Merchant's Horn north-shoulder face, Fitch Creek Basin
    Date: Early August (approach Aug 2, fall Aug 3, return date Aug 5)
    Item: La Sportiva Trango boot, size 7, right foot found on Ridgeback Spur
    Duration: Eleven days of movement while missing

    - Found boot: right-foot La Sportiva Trango, size seven, laces tied, wool sock damp, no blood.
    - Elevation of fall: approximately 7,700 feet; fall distance about twelve feet into a rock bowl.
    - Injuries inventoried: broken left ankle (weight-bearing impossible), deep forearm laceration, three cracked ribs later confirmed.
    - Supplies carried: two liters of water, four days of food, a trekking pole, and forty-one pages of handwritten notes.
    - First day movement: August 4 traverse of roughly 400 feet of ledge over seven hours using one boot and an improvised splint/crutch.

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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 Out: The Life Ring Hung With Purpose

    She Walked Out: The Life Ring Hung With Purpose
    Oct 17 2026
    She Walked Out: The Life Ring Hung With Purpose

    A life ring washed up hanging at eye level on a dock fifty-one miles from a missing trawler while the Coast Guard had searched six days with nothing found - why was a piece of the Dory Mae so precisely placed and who walked twenty-two miles with a fractured foot to leave it there? This episode centers on that impossible object, the woman who walked out, and the three factual anomalies that the official search record cannot account for.

    In this episode, we tell what happened before and after the Dory Mae left Anchor Cove, who was aboard, and the puzzling evidence that contradicts the search assumptions - including fuel, position, and barnacle clues. What do those three mismatched facts mean for the fate of the crew and the silence that followed the last radio words?

    Person: Cheryl Berry
    Person: Pete Noonan
    Date: July 12-19, 2011
    Location: Anchor Cove and Kessler Peninsula (Washington coast)
    Event: Dory Mae reported missing after radio transmission "Taking water" at 04:17 on July 14, 2011

    - The life ring belonged to a vessel reported missing fifty-one miles offshore and was found hanging from a transformer bracket at eye level on a dock at 07:42 on July 19, 2011.
    - Cheryl Berry walked twenty-two miles along a rugged coastline over three days while suffering a fractured foot and was found unconscious on the dock beside the life ring.
    - The Coast Guard searched for six days across a forty-mile-wide zone with helicopters, cutters, and patrol vessels and found no debris, wreckage, signal, oil slick, or life ring.
    - The Dory Mae departed Anchor Cove at 04:45 on July 12, 2011; Pete Noonan made a routine radio check at 18:15 that evening reporting everything normal.
    - A fuel receipt in Pete Noonan's truck dated the morning of July 12 recorded 410 gallons, while the harbormaster's log showed the Dory Mae taking on approximately 800 gallons before departure.

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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
  • Shoe on the Center Line: How a Grandfather Lost Eight Desert Miles

    Shoe on the Center Line: How a Grandfather Lost Eight Desert Miles
    Oct 16 2026
    Shoe on the Center Line: How a Grandfather Lost Eight Desert Miles

    Heat that can kill an adult in hours, a lone size-two child's shoe placed upright on the yellow center line, and a retired hydrologist who knew the desert like the back of his hand - what happened in between? A precise surveyor-like marker, no tracks, and a Jeep that died with one convulsive shudder eight miles from the nearest paved road: who left the shoe and where was the child?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from a routine morning run and a 9-1-1 call to the empty desert scene and the family back at home, outlining the decisions, the hidden detour, and the failed repair that set the day in motion. How did a thirty-one-year career of reading the landscape intersect with a failing oil pump, and what does a single shoe point to?

    Person: Jennifer Slater
    Person: Donald Porter
    Person: Marcus (age 8)
    Date: June 8, 2022
    Location: Perdido Flats Road, near Yuma, Arizona

    - Jennifer Slater was running a four-mile route, starting at 5:45 AM, when she found the shoe at 5:53 AM.
    - The shoe was a child's size two, white canvas with a green stripe, laces double-knotted and placed upright on the yellow center line.
    - Donald Porter, age 63, had 31 years' experience as a hydrologist mapping underground water in the Sonoran Desert.
    - On June 8, 2022 at 11:47 AM the 2009 Jeep Grand Cherokee died at mile marker 11.4 on Perdido Flats Road with an outside temperature of 108°F.
    - Donald had 300 milliliters of water for two people when the Jeep stopped and began recording at 11:51 AM.

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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
  • Watch Found Ticking: How a Missing Beacon Meant 81 Hours Buried

    Watch Found Ticking: How a Missing Beacon Meant 81 Hours Buried
    Oct 15 2026
    Watch Found Ticking: How a Missing Beacon Meant 81 Hours Buried

    Cold, controlled panic: a wristwatch ticked for 81 hours in undisturbed snow while its owner lay alive beneath six feet of debris - and no footprints led to the scene. How did a watch travel out of a debris field with zero disturbance, and what single missing device turned a survivable burial into a multi-day rescue?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from a May morning call to the Pryor County Sheriff to four days of searching, two wrong locations, and the decision that nearly ended the operation. You’ll hear how training, equipment, and a small distraction combined with a hidden weak layer in the snow to create an eighty-one-hour ordeal and the stubborn question everyone kept circling back to.

    Person: Frank Schmidt
    Date: May 11-14, 2019
    Location: bowl above Kessler Road, Montana
    Duration: 81 hours before the watch was found ticking
    Condition: buried under six feet of consolidated snow with a pencil-width breathing channel

    - A meter reader, Troy Bauer, found the wristwatch at 7:51 AM on May 14, 2019, face-up in undisturbed snow and photographed it.
    - The watch had been ticking for 81 hours inside a Montana mountain when photographed.
    - Frank Schmidt, 26 years old, was buried under six feet of consolidated debris with a watermelon-sized hollow in front of his face.
    - The crown fracture that released above him was four feet deep and 210 feet wide; he was carried approximately 340 feet.
    - Frank had left his beacon at home on the kitchen counter after removing it to replace batteries; the beacon was 30 miles from the mountain.

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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
  • Alone in the Dark: The Diver Who Drew Her Own Rescue Map

    Alone in the Dark: The Diver Who Drew Her Own Rescue Map
    Oct 14 2026
    Alone in the Dark: The Diver Who Drew Her Own Rescue Map

    Fear tightens when you imagine running out of air in total darkness - and this episode opens with a folded piece of emergency Mylar left on a car hood after nine days underground. A diver with more than sixty cave dives, a broken wrist, failing air, and a guideline she knew would mislead rescuers drew a map in the dark that would determine whether she was found; how did she plan every inch while rationing breath?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events from the moment Brenda Perry signed the log to the discovery of the Mylar map, covering her training, the cave layout she entered, the decisions she made inside the Annex passage, and the single choice on about day three that guided the searchers to her - would her map be legible enough to save her?

    Person: Brenda Perry
    Date: April 5 to April 15 (eleven days underground)
    Location: Sable Creek cave system, Annex passage beyond survey terminus
    Experience: Nine years recreational diving, four years cave diving, more than sixty cave dives
    Equipment: Primary reel 400 meters, two backup reels, emergency Mylar sheet

    - At 6:15 she signed into the informal log kept by Morris Vance on the morning she entered the cave.
    - The Annex passage extended roughly 300 feet past a known restriction where official surveys stopped.
    - She discovered a dry chamber approximately 18 feet wide and 11 feet deep somewhere past the restriction.
    - She cut her guideline 230 feet past the restriction and tied it off to a rock protrusion.
    - She rehearsed compass bearings, depth notations, distances and ceiling profiles for close to 30 hours before drawing them on Mylar.

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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
  • Buried Alive for Eleven Days: The Yellow Boot That Saved Her

    Buried Alive for Eleven Days: The Yellow Boot That Saved Her
    Oct 13 2026
    Buried Alive for Eleven Days: The Yellow Boot That Saved Her

    Cold, isolated, and buried beneath wind-packed snow, a child's yellow rain boot stood upright in a truck window for eleven days - the only visible sign that someone might still be alive. That boot, found by a beagle on March 9, 2017, revealed a vehicle completely hidden on a logging road that search teams hadn’t checked; could the person who placed it still be alive?

    In this episode, we tell how a routine winter run and a solo camping plan turned into an eleven-day survival and a search misdirected to the wrong side of the forest, and how one small object reframed everything: was the person inside the buried truck still alive?

    Person: Rachel Taylor
    Date: February 26, 2017 (truck buried), March 9, 2017 (boot found)
    Location: Saddleback logging road, Kessler Forest, northern Idaho
    Event: Truck buried in snow; vehicle window displaying a child’s yellow rain boot
    Search: Organized teams worked the western side of Kessler Forest for four days

    - Rachel drove onto Saddleback logging road at about 9:40 AM and encountered a drift at the six-mile mark that buried the front of her truck to the frame in under 30 seconds.
    - She carried a four-season tent, a sleeping bag rated to -15°F, a camp stove, two gallons of water, five days of food, a short-handled camping shovel, a nylon tow rope, and a dark stuff sack.
    - Search teams mobilized 40 miles west by March 1 after Paul Foster called Gwen two days after Rachel’s expected return on February 28.
    - The yellow child’s rain boot with frog eyes was standing upright on a stick inside a windshield and had been there for eleven days before being discovered on March 9, 2017.
    - Organized rescue efforts, including helicopters, snowmobiles, and grid searches, concentrated on Heron Flat and the western boundary of Kessler Forest while the buried green Ford F-150 remained fourteen road-miles away on Saddleback.

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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
  • He Survived the Gulf - and Chose Not to Call Help

    He Survived the Gulf - and Chose Not to Call Help
    Oct 12 2026
    He Survived the Gulf - and Chose Not to Call Help

    He survived a dismasting in 44-knot winds and a 53°F Gulf with a working EPIRB on board-but he didn't press it. A navigation light recovered after six days and a still-burning LED pulled from a trotline are the small, stubborn clues that forced rescuers to question a single deliberate choice: why decline an immediate distress call when every system for rescue was in place?

    In this episode, we tell what happened on the Adrienne between February 2 and February 11, 2019, how the mast fell at 2:17 a.m., and the sequence of methodical decisions that followed; what drove a retired structural engineer and volunteer to treat a severe forearm laceration, sail with damaged gear, stop for fuel in cash, and avoid activating his emergency beacon-what was he trying to prove or avoid?

    Person: Gary Mason
    Date: February 5, 2019 (mast failure at 2:17 a.m.)
    Location: Gulf of Mexico, four miles southeast of Pelican Shoals (debris recovered)
    Age: 52
    Item recovered: Navigation light with red LED still burning after nearly six days underwater

    - Winds at the squall reached sustained 44 knots with gusts to 51 knots when the forestay toggle failed.
    - The Adrienne was a 37-foot sloop, dismasted across the port rail; mast and navigation light entered the water.
    - Water temperature in the Florida Gulf on those February days was 53°F.
    - Gary had a registered EPIRB onboard and an intact SSB radio but did not activate the beacon and lost external antennas.
    - A crab fisherman, Raymond Hicks, found the tangled aluminum tubing and the still-glowing red LED on his trotlines six days after the mast fell.

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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