Épisodes

  • She Walked Out of the Coldback Range Wearing One Glove

    She Walked Out of the Coldback Range Wearing One Glove
    Aug 8 2026
    She Walked Out of the Coldback Range Wearing One Glove

    A woman walked out of eleven days in the Coldback Range calm, deliberate, and wearing only a left-hand glove - her right hand bare - while the organized search had been suspended four days earlier; what was she carrying that never made it into the record? How could a named, sealed 32-ounce water bottle and a single dark blue glove be found six feet apart and treated so differently by rescuers?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline of Ruth Weber’s disappearance and reappearance, the search protocols used in Crane County, and the small but pivotal physical evidence left on the gravel bars and drainages; we ask whether assumptions in search strategy left crucial facts unexplained and what that means for a case that refuses to end cleanly.

    Person: Ruth Weber
    Date: November 19, 2022 (found walking), November 8-19, 2022 (time in range)
    Location: Coldback Range, Crane County, Oregon
    Event: Missing person search suspended then later found alive
    Status: Not injured severely enough to be incapacitated; had cracked ribs and survived in shelter

    - Ruth Weber was thirty-one years old at the time of the November 2022 trip.
    - She had been missing for eleven days when seen by Scott Larsen at 7:00 AM on November 19, 2022.
    - Ruth signed the Harmon Creek register at roughly 8:00 AM on November 8, 2022 - the last confirmed record before she dropped into Henner drainage.
    - A volunteer found a sealed 32-ounce orange Nalgene bottle with Ruth’s name and, about six feet away, a single dark blue glove; the bottle was retained as evidence and the glove was not.
    - Ruth had completed a full wilderness first aid certification eighteen months before the trip and had logged three solo excursions in the prior fourteen months.

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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
  • Boot Found Six Feet Up, No Prints Below: The Gina Powell Case

    Boot Found Six Feet Up, No Prints Below: The Gina Powell Case
    Aug 7 2026
    Boot Found Six Feet Up, No Prints Below: The Gina Powell Case

    A lone women's size seven boot laced tight hung six feet up in a dead lodgepole pine with no footprints beneath it - and the owner, Gina Powell, had been missing eleven days. The radio she carried into the forest was functionally dead from corroded batteries, her partners were searching the wrong drainage, and three preventable errors funneled her toward a blowdown-choked gully; how did a boot end up six feet above ground with no explanation?

    In this episode, we lay out the sequence of events, equipment failures, and search decisions that framed the eleven-day delay before Gina was found, and ask whether those three early mistakes are the only way to understand what happened. What exactly went wrong that morning and how does the boot change the story?

    Person: Gina Powell
    Date: October 3, 2019
    Location: Soldier Draw, Kaibab-Brecken National Forest
    Status: Missing for eleven days before discovery
    Search teams: 32 volunteers and 2 dog teams

    - Boot: women's size 7, left-footbed molded, laced tight, no mud on the leather, no weathering on the laces.
    - Radio: handheld unit with two AA batteries, terminals showed long-term corrosion and the unit was functionally dead on the morning of the hunt.
    - Party split: agreed split point at Ponderosa bench ~1.25 miles from truck; Tom Breck moved the designated meeting location further north without informing anyone.
    - Timeline: Gina was alone in the forest for approximately 14 hours before search-and-rescue was activated at 20:17 that evening.
    - Search launch: October 4 at first light with 32 volunteers, 2 dog teams, coordinator James Clark; bloodhound Cass tracked scent from the Ponderosa bench and stopped at limestone shelf around 6,500 ft.

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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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    21 min
  • The Poles in the Locked Car: Trailhead Clues, Mountain Secrets

    The Poles in the Locked Car: Trailhead Clues, Mountain Secrets
    Aug 6 2026
    The Poles in the Locked Car: Trailhead Clues, Mountain Secrets

    A locked Subaru with trekking poles standing upright in the cupholder, a key six miles away buried in a pack, and a seasoned hiker who vanished after a clear GPS track went silent - the image refuses to resolve. How did Neil West climb an eight-hundred-foot near-vertical quartzite wall and then disappear without the routine call he never missed?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from Patsy’s Diner to the Bolen Trailhead and into the Greider Wall country, laying out the clues recorded on Neil West’s GPS and the actions of the people who found the car. Which part of the recorded track explains what happened at Asker Gulch, and what questions remain about the final hours?

    Person: Neil West
    Date: September 15-18, 2017
    Location: Greider Wall / Asker Gulch / Bolen Trailhead
    Status: Missing (last GPS ping September 18, 2017, 14:14)
    Occupation: Structural engineer

    - West was 44 years old in September 2017 and lived in Colorado Springs.
    - He had completed the Colorado Trail twice, the Arizona Trail once, and summited fourteen fourteeners.
    - He called his sister Patricia at 07:48 on September 15 from the Bolen Trailhead and that was the last voice contact.
    - His GPS recorded continuous tracks from September 15 through September 18, then stopped at 14:14 at Asker Gulch.
    - The GPS showed an ascent of roughly 800 vertical feet up the Greider Wall in two hours and forty minutes.

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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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    21 min
  • She Took the Wrong Rib - Found 600 Feet Below the Divide

    She Took the Wrong Rib - Found 600 Feet Below the Divide
    Aug 5 2026
    She Took the Wrong Rib - Found 600 Feet Below the Divide

    Cold, fast weather and a ruined emergency beacon turned a precise planner into a missing hiker; a pencil note in a cabin register is the last confirmed trace before she plunged six hundred feet below the summit - how did the map detail pull her off route, and why did the weather arrive five hours early? Search keywords: missing hiker, wilderness survival, Morrow Divide.

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from a 05:30 pencil line at Pinehurst Wilderness Wilderness through the storm that hit the Morrow Divide, recounting what Lisa Draper carried, what she wrote, and what the first responders found; could a cracked beacon and a misleading rib on a wall map explain everything?

    Person: Lisa Draper
    Date: August 14, 2019
    Location: Pinehurst Wilderness Wilderness / Morrow Divide
    Status: Missing then found with fractured fibula
    Case: Open meteorological question in search-and-rescue report

    - At 05:30 on August 14, 2019, a pencil entry in the Pinehurst cabin register read: "Left camp 0530. Going to try the Divide before the storm. - L.D."
    - Seventeen minutes after that entry, the nearest weather station recorded the first detectable pressure drop of the incoming front.
    - Lisa had packed five days of food, planned the Morrow Divide loop for two years, and signed the kiosk on August 10 with expected return August 15.
    - Her personal locator beacon had a crack along the antenna junction that severed the internal connection while the switch still read ON, so no signal transmitted.
    - The storm arrived at approximately 11:00, five hours earlier than forecast, with temperature falling 18°F in 90 minutes and winds over 40 mph; by then Lisa was already off the marked route.

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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
  • She Left a Full Water Bottle - Found Days Later, Alone on Slab

    She Left a Full Water Bottle - Found Days Later, Alone on Slab
    Aug 4 2026
    She Left a Full Water Bottle - Found Days Later, Alone on Slab

    Quiet and deliberate details make this disappearance creep from ordinary to impossible: a full filtered water bottle left behind, a cast-iron skillet still on the stove, and a campsite untouched for four days. How does a practiced backcountry traveler who knew Ferris Bench like a room in her house walk away from planned gear and then vanish where scent should have stayed?

    In this episode, we lay out the sequence of what was found at the Ferris Bench camp and the early search actions that followed, from the voicemail and the precise routines at home to the trackers on the granite Slab - and we ask what the evidence really implies about Kathleen Young’s last evening.

    Person: Kathleen Young
    Age: 54
    Location: Ferris Bench, Harlow County, Montana
    Date last seen: July 10, 2019
    Search discovered camp: July 14, 2019

    - Kathleen left a voicemail at 2:00 PM about a spare key location under a clay pot.
    - At 6:15 PM she texted: "Heading out for the evening walk, back before dark."
    - The campsite sat undisturbed for four days before being reported by 16-year-old Carl Whitaker.
    - One of three water bottles was missing while another filtered bottle was full and left ready to drink.
    - Tracking dogs followed scent northeast toward the Slab for about 1.25 miles, then scent abruptly vanished on the granite.

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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
  • Dry Boots on a Wet Road: Where Nicole Vanished for Five Days

    Dry Boots on a Wet Road: Where Nicole Vanished for Five Days
    Aug 3 2026
    Dry Boots on a Wet Road: Where Nicole Vanished for Five Days

    Light on the trailhead registry and heavy with rain, two dry boots stood perfectly upright on a damp forest service road while everything around them was soaked - laces tied, name tags reading N. STROUD, found six minutes after 6:08 a.m.; how does footwear remain dry when an inch and a half of rain still drips from the canyon? What could explain boots placed so deliberately on a road that runs two point three miles from the route she signed for?

    In this episode, we follow the sequence of events from Nicole Stroud signing the Middle Fork Loop trailhead on June 7, 2007 to the discovery of her boots on FSR 114 on June 11, and we lay out the evidence collected by search-and-rescue as they try to reconcile her known route with where the boots were found. What did the scratched pencil note in her notebook and the dog tracks reveal about the decision that changed her course?

    Person: Nicole Stroud
    Date: June 7-11, 2007
    Location: FSR 114; Middle Fork Loop trailhead; canyon system
    Status: Missing after boots found on road
    Search team: 17 people, 2 dog units, 1 helicopter

    - Nicole signed the trailhead at 8:20 a.m. Thursday, writing Middle Fork Loop and an expected return date of Saturday, June 9.
    - Two boots were found at 6:14 a.m. Monday on the center of FSR 114, laces tied and dry, with name tags reading "N. STROUD."
    - FSR 114 is 2.3 miles from the trailhead and runs along the western rim, while Nicole had registered for a southeast route.
    - A pencil note in Nicole's canyon notebook read "W called. Changed. Will explain Thursday late," written over a blue ballpoint entry; the notebook was in her truck's glove compartment.
    - A dog named Holt tracked to the boots, followed the road edge north for roughly 40 yards, then sat at the road edge above a steep brushy slope one point one miles above an unconsidered side drainage.

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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 Standing Boot on a Gravel Road: How Did It Walk There?

    The Standing Boot on a Gravel Road: How Did It Walk There?
    Aug 2 2026
    The Standing Boot on a Gravel Road: How Did It Walk There?

    A single size seven hiking boot, laces double-knotted and standing upright on a wet gravel road while its interior remained dry - how does something like that arrive alone, one point one miles from where the owner would be found? This episode centers on a contradiction that even the official search-and-rescue report could not explain: no mechanical explanation fits the boot's appearance. What happened in the Suttler National Forest that morning?

    In this episode, we walk through the timeline, witness statements, and the official report to lay out what is known about Monica Berry’s disappearance and the odd evidence that dogged the search. We describe her routine, the terrain of the Coldwater Trail and Hatchet Plateau, and the moment she left the spur trail - then ask the question the photograph of the boot forces: who, or what, moved it?

    Person: Monica Berry
    Date: Tuesday morning at 6:47 (photograph taken by Gary Simpson)
    Location: Suttler National Forest, Hatchet Plateau / Coldwater Trail
    Status: Missing then found after thirty-one hours; official report states no mechanical explanation for boot
    Author: Search-and-rescue coordinator Roger Hayes (report filed weeks later)

    - Monica Berry had been missing for thirteen hours when the boot was seen on the gravel road.
    - The boot was a size seven, standing upright with laces tied in a double knot.
    - The boot was 1.1 miles by road from where Monica would eventually be found.
    - Monica and Marcus entered the Coldwater Trailhead at approximately 2:15 PM and reached the Hatchet Plateau by 4:30 PM.
    - Monica walked the same annual trail for eleven consecutive years and had stopped at the Hatchet Plateau’s fire ring at 4:30 PM as part of her usual routine.

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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
  • The Shoe That Stood Upright: How Sandra Vanished From Open Ground

    The Shoe That Stood Upright: How Sandra Vanished From Open Ground
    Aug 1 2026
    The Shoe That Stood Upright: How Sandra Vanished From Open Ground

    A single white hiking shoe stood upright, laces tied, size seven, on dry soil while every inch around it was soaked - found three miles into a familiar trail at 6:52 a.m, on April 9, 2019. How did a deliberate, experienced hiker disappear from open meadow terrain with a shoe that appears to have sat there before the runoff soaked the wash?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from Sandra Quinn’s last confirmed call at 4:31 p.m. on April 7 to the discovery of her shoe two mornings later, and we lay out the peculiar physical details that make this disappearance puzzling. What does a dry patch beneath an upright shoe tell us about the hours between her last call and when the shoe was found?

    Person: Sandra Quinn
    Date: April 7-9, 2019
    Location: Spur Wash, near Fenwick Flat, Orvane National Forest
    Age: 62
    Last confirmed contact: 4:31 p.m. April 7 (a 40-second call to her sister)

    - The shoe was a white hiking shoe, size seven, laces tied in a neat bow, standing upright on its sole.
    - The shoe was found at 6:52 a.m. on April 9, 2019, by Jessica Wells, three miles into the North Spur trail run.
    - The ground around the shoe was uniformly wet from overnight runoff, but the soil directly beneath the shoe was dry.
    - Sandra Quinn’s last confirmed activity was a 40-second phone call to her sister at 4:31 p.m. on April 7; the phone powered off at 4:47 p.m.
    - Fenwick Flat is an open meadow roughly 300 yards across at 8,300 feet, visible from a quarter mile in every direction and classified as high-probability terrain for searches.

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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