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  • The Peak That Gave Her Back: Found 3,000 Feet Below, Clock Stopped

    The Peak That Gave Her Back: Found 3,000 Feet Below, Clock Stopped
    2026/09/10
    The Peak That Gave Her Back: Found 3,000 Feet Below, Clock Stopped

    A lone boot stood tied on a mid-channel rock and a sixty-two-year-old hiker sat upright against a cottonwood, hands folded and eyes open, 3,000 feet below the summit she'd signed seventeen hours earlier-yet her shirt was dry and her core temperature matched only a few hours of exposure. How did Denise Powell descend impossible cliff bands and talus with no gear and no memory, and why do the physical and medical timelines refuse to match?

    In this episode, we follow the documented facts from Denise Powell's summit entry at 11:44 a.m. to the fisherman who found her at 4:50 a.m., cover the search-and-rescue trailhead evidence and the medical assessment, and ask how a right parietal lobe contusion could produce purposeful movement with complete amnesia-could brain injury explain crossing terrain no mapped route connects?

    Person: Denise Powell
    Date: August 14, 2017 (found); August 13, 2017 (summit entry)
    Location: Callahan Peak summit (10,840 ft) and Callahan Peak (canyon floor)
    Injury: Right parietal lobe contusion (neurologist Dr. Howard Yee)
    Core temperature on arrival: 89.2°F

    - Summit register signed at 11:44 AM on August 13, 2017 with neat print.
    - Vehicle found about 8:00 PM August 13; SAR paged at midnight and began dawn search.
    - Bloodhound Packer trailed from trailhead 5.3 miles up to 9,600 ft then stopped; scent ended abruptly.
    - Found by fisherman at 4:50 AM on August 14, upright boot on mid-channel rock with eighteen inches of water to nearest bank.
    - Seventeen hours elapsed between summit sign-in and discovery; drainage required at least five hours of aggressive daylight technical travel per GIS model.

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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 分
  • She Walked Away From Her Tower - Woke 2.5 Miles Below

    She Walked Away From Her Tower - Woke 2.5 Miles Below
    2026/09/09
    She Walked Away From Her Tower - Woke 2.5 Miles Below

    A woman vanished from an occupied fire lookout overnight, her radio left exactly where she always kept it and the Osborne fire-finder aimed at a bare granite face - then four days later she sat two and a half miles away with no memory of how she got there. What could break a precise routine and erase a six-hundred-yard scent line as if someone or something intervened?

    In this episode, we walk through the official records, witness accounts, and the small, precise details left behind in the tower that turn a simple missing-person case into an unresolved puzzle. How did Marilyn Williams go from signing off at 6:52 p.m. to being found immobile against a boulder miles away?

    Person: Marilyn Williams
    Date: July 9, 2019
    Location: Calloway Tower, Crestwood National Forest
    Elevation: 7,340 feet
    Distance found: 2.5 miles south of the tower

    - Marilyn signed off at 6:52 p.m. on July 9, 2019 with the final radio phrase "Calloway Tower, clear."
    - Her pack and binoculars were missing from the tower, but her handheld Motorola radio was found on a shelf inside the cab.
    - The Osborne fire-finder in the cab had its alidade swung north toward a bare granite face on the ridge.
    - Her logbook showed fifty-three consecutive morning runs; the last entry (July 9) read "Six-oh-eight. Two miles. Mud on the south stretch."
    - Search dogs followed her scent along the maintenance road for approximately 600 yards south before the scent line abruptly stopped.

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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 分
  • The Boots on the Kiosk: Stranger Rescue, Vanished Samaritan Mystery

    The Boots on the Kiosk: Stranger Rescue, Vanished Samaritan Mystery
    2026/09/08
    The Boots on the Kiosk: Stranger Rescue, Vanished Samaritan Mystery

    A pair of dry women's hiking boots sat neatly laced on top of a six-foot kiosk roof with no dew on them while everything else was wet - and those boots did not belong to the missing hiker they seemed to implicate. How did boots with different DNA and a different gait profile end up where no ladder marks or footprints were found, and what happened to the woman who vanished after being helped by strangers?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events recorded that day at Fenwick Loop trailhead: the morning discovery of the boots, the day-use card, the out-of-state couple who found and escorted Gina off the trail, and the ensuing search and confusion that followed - but can those documented moments explain why Gina Callahan vanished again after reaching the parking lot?

    Person: Gina Callahan
    Date: Monday, June 14
    Location: Fenwick Loop trailhead, Clearwater County
    Time of photograph: 7:15 AM
    Witnesses: Doug and Sandra Mercer

    - Boots photographed at 7:15 AM were dry while surrounding surfaces had dew.
    - Gina filed a day-use intention card at 6:52 AM listing a 4:00 PM expected return.
    - Photo timestamp shows Doug and Sandra Mercer with Gina at mile 9 at 11:03 AM.
    - The Mercers escorted Gina off the trail over nearly three hours and left the parking lot around 2:00 PM.
    - Forensic analysis later showed the kiosk boots belonged to someone other than Gina (different DNA and gait profile).

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 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 分
  • Beacon in the Gorge: How a Rescue Signal Broadcast Before the Fall

    Beacon in the Gorge: How a Rescue Signal Broadcast Before the Fall
    2026/09/07
    Beacon in the Gorge: How a Rescue Signal Broadcast Before the Fall

    A beacon transmitted a GPS coordinate, a timestamp, and a registration number that all pointed to Jennifer Underwood - even though the unit had been broadcasting for seventy-one hours from the bottom of Meridian Creek gorge, 1,300 feet below the nearest snow. The manufacturer confirmed the log and the unit had not been reset; how did Jennifer’s beacon enter the creek the evening before she began her descent?

    In this episode, we walk through the precise timeline, the terrain, and the decisions that led a methodical backcountry skier into an unseen talus chute and left a rescue signal that didn’t match her movements. What happened between the avalanche at 8:15 a.m. and the beacon’s arrival in the creek that evening?

    Person: Jennifer Underwood
    Date: May 8-9, 2018
    Location: Callum Cirque / Meridian Creek gorge
    Event: Wind slab avalanche with 80-foot width and 18-inch crown
    Status: Beacon transmitting for 71 hours at 1,300 feet below nearest snow

    - Beacon log showed entry into Meridian Creek gorge on the evening of May 8, though Jennifer began descent on May 9.
    - Avalanche fracture opened at 4,200 feet, with an 80-foot-wide slab and an 18-inch-deep crown.
    - The slide carried Jennifer approximately 400 feet down the face while she remained at the surface and suffered a fractured right fibula.
    - A talus chute nearly 900 feet long ran behind the cirque’s rock band, connecting through internal drainage to Meridian Creek and was not on surface maps.
    - Jennifer’s pack - containing the beacon - fell an estimated 20 feet onto a ledge inside the chute and separated from her before traveling down to the creek.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 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 分
  • She Came Back with a Stone-But Where Had She Walked?

    She Came Back with a Stone-But Where Had She Walked?
    2026/09/06
    She Came Back with a Stone-But Where Had She Walked?

    She vanished from a familiar fourteen-mile trail and returned with three spiral notebooks tucked into her car, each held open by a river stone - yet trained dogs, three field teams, and fourteen years of search-and-rescue experience found no footprints, no campfire ash, no sign she ever left the trailhead parking lot. How did a fifty-two-year-old teacher who’d hiked these drainages for thirty years leave no trace in six days, and why did a bloodhound stop dead exactly two miles from the car?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from the Saturday afternoon she left Calloway in a green Subaru Forester to the discovery of the notebooks under a smooth stone and the baffling search that produced nothing in the snow or brush. What does the sudden end of a scent line at two miles, the mid-thought last journal entry, and the return of a woman who carried a stone tell us about where she had walked?

    Person: Donna Reed
    Location: Whitmore National Forest, Sycamore Creek corridor
    Date: April (missing reported April 11; search began April 12)
    Vehicle: green Subaru Forester
    Search teams: three field teams and two canine units

    - Donna Reed was fifty-two and had taught Earth science at Calloway Middle School for nineteen years.
    - She had hiked the Sycamore Creek route for thirty years and planned a fourteen-mile round trip to Garnet Flats.
    - A deputy searched her Forester four days before the notebooks were found and reported nothing.
    - The bloodhound Bess followed a scent for exactly two miles from the trailhead and then sat down and refused to continue.
    - Three spiral notebooks covering eight days of handwriting were found on the passenger seat, each held open by a river stone; the last entry ends mid-thought: "I think I can see the road from here."

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 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 分
  • One Bootprint on Shale Horn: The Plateau That Shouldn't Have Been Survived

    One Bootprint on Shale Horn: The Plateau That Shouldn't Have Been Survived
    2026/09/05
    One Bootprint on Shale Horn: The Plateau That Shouldn't Have Been Survived

    The wind had stripped the March plateau bare, and the only human trace found was a single, clean boot print at the rim of a basalt canyon - no trail in, no trail out. Why would a meticulous 44-year-old surveyor leave an ice axe in his truck and vanish for six days with only one bootprint to show for it?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from a 6:50 a.m. phone call to a neighbor through the arrival of search-and-rescue and the discovery on the Shale Horn plateau, asking how a man who tracked his hawk’s weight to the gram could disappear into re-frozen shale and leave so little evidence.

    Person: Raymond Duncan
    Date: March 7-13 (phone called March 7; search began March 10; boot print found six days after disappearance)
    Location: Shale Horn plateau, Deschutes National Forest, forty miles northeast of Garvey, Oregon
    Status: Missing at time of initial search; single boot print found
    SAR Coordinator: Jean Hill

    - Raymond Duncan was 44 years old and lived alone in Garvey, Oregon.
    - He called neighbor Bev at 6:50 a.m. on Friday, March 7, saying his hawk Cass needed feeding between 7:00 and 7:30.
    - His gray truck was found locked at the Shale Horn trailhead with a USGS topo map on the passenger seat and an ice axe in the truck bed.
    - Search-and-rescue arrived Monday, March 10, with nine volunteers, a dog handler with two tracking dogs, and a Forest Service liaison.
    - A single boot print was found less than 100 yards from the north rim on a plateau where wind and crusted ground left almost no other impressions.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 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 分
  • Forty-Foot Circle: How a Perfect Rock Wheel Erased Her Trail

    Forty-Foot Circle: How a Perfect Rock Wheel Erased Her Trail
    2026/09/04
    Forty-Foot Circle: How a Perfect Rock Wheel Erased Her Trail

    Cold, methodical, and impossible: a forty-foot ring of rocks flipped face-down with drag marks like spokes, in the middle of a forest with no trail access. The circle baffled search dogs and forensic teams, and one photograph held the clue everyone missed - what actually erased her trail?

    In this episode, we follow the sequence of events from the last confirmed moments of a twenty-eight-year-old geologist to the discovery that redirected an entire search effort. What did the overturned stones, fulcrum marks, and a scent line that stopped mid-field really mean for the missing person case?

    Person: Rhonda Farrell
    Date: February 5-9 (register signed Feb 7; circle found Feb 9)
    Location: talus field in Sutter-Gallatin National Forest
    Status: missing (not returned by expected time)
    Event: forty-foot circle of flipped stones discovered and photographed

    - Rhonda Farrell, 28, signed the trailhead register at 8:14 AM on Saturday, February 7, listing the talus field and an expected return of 4:00 PM.
    - Temperatures were 19°F at the trailhead on Feb 7 and dropped toward single digits and an overnight low of 4°F during searches.
    - Two search dogs held Rhonda’s scent for roughly 1.5 miles then stopped abruptly at the lower edge of the talus field after working expanding arcs for 40 minutes.
    - The circle discovered on Feb 9 measured 40 feet across with stones weighing between 8 and 90 pounds all flipped face-down and drag marks radiating outward from a central point.
    - Some larger stones showed fulcrum marks in the soil indicating they had been levered rather than lifted.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 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 分
  • Her Vest Was Dry - She Vanished Into Freezing Ochoco Pines

    Her Vest Was Dry - She Vanished Into Freezing Ochoco Pines
    2026/09/03
    Her Vest Was Dry - She Vanished Into Freezing Ochoco Pines

    A fishing vest, folded with polarized sunglasses placed lens-up and a single orange strike indicator tucked beneath the hem, sat on a gravel bar that had been underwater for three to five hours the night before - and yet the vest was dry. The temperature that morning was 31 degrees and falling, the Sutter Fork can steal consciousness in under 20 minutes, and six minutes after Tom Sutter watched Jean Turner cast a dry fly she was gone; how did a dry vest end up where it could not have been by current alone?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from Jean Turner’s routine January outing to the search that began hours later, and we lay out the physical evidence, witness accounts, and official findings that remained unresolved in the case file. What happened in the Ochoco Pines Forest that day, and why did the lead investigator close the file with a final, unanswered note?

    Person: Jean Turner
    Person: Tom Sutter
    Date: January 13, 2011
    Location: Sutter Fork, Ochoco Pines Forest
    Status: Found alive after six days

    - Jean Turner was 54 years old in January 2011 and worked as a licensed practical nurse in an oncology unit.
    - At 12:17 PM Jean was casting on the east bank; at 12:23 PM Tom looked up and the east bank was empty.
    - The temperature that morning was 31 degrees and falling; the Sutter Fork can cause loss of consciousness in under 20 minutes.
    - The gravel bar where the vest was found had been underwater for three to five hours the night before, according to the Forest Service hydrologist.
    - Search-and-rescue lead Wade Perry noted in his February 2, 2011 summary: "Physical evidence at gravel bar site remains inconsistent with documented river stage data. Case closed, detail noted."

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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 分