Scary Horror Stories

She Walked Toward the Sound - Found 640 Feet BelowA woman who packed five days of food, rigged her tent with practiced care, and arranged insulin for her diabetic cat walked away from a perfectly set campsite - leaving boots, a sleeping bag still slept in, and a pot of dry pasta with two whole bouillon cubes. The search teams later spotted a figure 640 feet below the canyon rim; what did Brenda Johnson hear in the trees that made her climb toward the sound and not return for forty-one hours?In this episode, we tell the sequence of events from Brenda Johnson's July 11 arrival at the Hollins Pass trailhead through the discovery at Coldwater Draw, laying out the campsite evidence, the last phone call, and the initial search tracking that followed - what could explain a trained outdoor worker leaving everything and climbing toward an unknown noise?Person: Brenda JohnsonDate: July 11-14, 2019Location: Hollins Pass trailhead, Weyburn National Forest; Coldwater Draw 640 feet below canyon rimStatus: Missing for forty-one hours before being spotted by helicopterCase: Abandoned camp with intact gear and undisturbed cooking pot- Brenda left a titanium pot with water, dry pasta, and two whole bouillon cubes on a cold burner.- She drove into the Hollins Pass trailhead in early July of 2019 and had a permit and a summit plan for July 14.- Brenda arranged insulin care for her cat Norris with neighbor Bob Lund by phone from the trailhead on July 11; the call dropped as signal faded.- Her campsite was three-quarters of a mile up the Saddleback Connector trail with a taut rain fly, staked guylines, and a trekking pole through the fly zipper.- Search teams found scent moving northeast from camp toward Shatter Bench; a figure was later spotted 640 feet below the canyon rim.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: [email protected].

She Left Her Journal Open: The Boot on Sablo River RimA single size seven women's hiking boot, a folded sock, and a laminated card with eleven words were all that stood between a woman’s meticulous record-keeping and a canyon that swallowed her trace; who leaves a field journal open on a car seat and never returns? This episode follows the oddest clues: a boot snagged in cottonwood roots, a stopped sentence in a dated journal entry, and a river that rose sixteen percent with no rain - what happened on the Sablo River rim?In this episode, we walk through the sequence of discoveries from the Cuero Trailhead to the Sablo watershed, describing each physical clue found and the timeline surrounding Peggy Hall’s disappearance, and ask how a methodical hiker’s routines were interrupted in the middle of a sentence.Person: Peggy HallDate: June 8-11, 2019Location: Cuero Trailhead / Sablo River watershed, Garfield CountyStatus: Missing (no missing persons report on file the morning the boot was found)Event: 16% river rise over six hours on afternoon of June 9 with no recorded rainfall- At 6:41 AM on June 11, 2019, Ross Bell found a size seven women’s hiking boot snagged in cottonwood roots on the east bank of the Sablo River.- The boot’s laces were tied in a double knot and the sock inside was folded down at the ankle; no scuffs or tears suggesting a fall or force were present.- A laminated card inside the sock had eleven words in blue ballpoint: "WEDNESDAY NIGHTS, TEN PM, CALL IF I HAVEN'T CALLED YOU FIRST." followed by a phone number.- Peggy Hall signed the Cuero Trailhead register on Saturday, June 8, listing a planned return date of June 11 and made a June 8 journal entry that stopped mid-sentence: "water in the lower Arco is higher than last time, which is odd because".- The Sablo flow gauge recorded a 16% rise over six hours on the afternoon of June 9, with no logged rainfall or radar storm in the watershed.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: [email protected].

Found Alive: How Pelham Creek Swallowed Tammy for Eleven DaysThe forest turned a routine four-mile hike into an eleven-day disappearance, with a clear day, a signed trail register, and a woman found alive 3.2 miles from the trailhead in a direction she had never planned to go - so how did the map stop matching reality? Search-and-rescue notes, a lone yellow surveying rod, and two tracking dogs that abruptly went silent at a creek crossing make this a disorienting wilderness mystery that refuses easy answers.In this episode, we lay out the documented timeline, the people involved, and the puzzling field observations recorded by coordinators and dog handlers, and ask what the maps missed and why the terrain itself seemed to hide a hiker for more than a week.Person: Tammy WhiteDate: May 10, 2019Location: Pelham Creek trailheadStatus: Found alive after eleven daysCoordinator: John Hoffman- Tammy signed the trail register at 3:47 PM on May 10, 2019 with an expected return of 7:00 PM.- Search coordinators arrived by noon on May 11 and had 14 volunteers and 2 dog handlers staged.- Tammy was found 3.2 miles from the trailhead in a direction she had not planned to go.- Dogs tracked Tammy’s scent for 1.25 miles, crossed the creek, then stopped and went quiet after covering a 400-meter creek corridor over three hours.- A yellow surveying rod was found propped against the register post on day one and remained an unresolved anomaly for eight days.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: [email protected].

The Meadow With a Boot and No Footprints: Lost at 9,400A single hiking boot stood upright, unlaced and dry inside, in the center of a frozen meadow pool with no tracks in the mud from any direction-yet that boot was the first sign anyone had that Jessica Keller was missing. How did a right boot end up alone on ice while the person who wore it vanished into wind, temperature drops and unexplained scent termini?In this episode, we follow the four-day search above the Caldera Creek corridor and the odd clues that kept pointing the wrong way, from surveillance of Jessica's Subaru to canine teams that stopped at an empty spot on Rim Flats. What caused two trained tracking dogs to refuse to move past a precise point in an open meadow?Person: Jessica KellerDate: April 2006 (Wednesday April 5, 2006 - Thursday)Location: Caldera Creek corridor / Rim Flats / Rim FlatsStatus: MissingEvent: Single right hiking boot found upright in frozen meadow pool- Jessica Keller was 48 years old and employed as a billing coordinator at the Farren orthopedic clinic for 11 years.- She had delivered dinner every Thursday to her mother at Ponderosa Arms for four years without exception.- Surveillance recorded her Subaru entering the Rim Flats trailhead parking lot at 5:22 PM; there was no footage of it returning.- Wind at Rim Flats on Wednesday night reached sustained 19 mph, gusting to 31 mph, and temperature dropped to 28°F by 11:40 PM.- Two dog teams (bloodhound Hooper and Belgian Malinois Petra) independently stopped at the same unmarked point near the center of Rim Flats, logged as a scent terminus, with no physical disturbance.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: [email protected].

She Took Off Her Boots. Someone Laced Them Back. Why?A woman’s boots were found double-knotted and deliberately placed on a granite boulder at 10,300 feet with no pack, no tracks, and no one in sight - a scene witnessed by a bird photographer ten hours after the hiker sat down to adjust a liner. Who removed the boots, why were they tied back on an exposed rock, and what happened in the hours that Nicole Osborne cannot remember?In this episode, we recount the timeline from Nicole Osborne’s solo hike into Ashford Basin through the discovery that launched a search-and-rescue operation, and we follow how the boots, the terrain, and witness reports shaped the early investigation. What does the physical evidence say about the gaps in her memory?Person: Nicole OsborneDate: March 14, 2019Location: Ashford Basin, ten thousand three hundred feetStatus: Found alive after rescueOccupation: Hydrological technician- Nicole stopped and removed her left boot at 9:24 AM on March 14, 2019.- A bird photographer, Denise Davis, photographed the boots at approximately 9:34 AM.- The boots were found standing, heels flush against the uphill face, toes pointing outward, with laces double-knotted.- Nicole had been last seen planning to return by 4 PM on March 13 after leaving at 5:50 AM in a gray Toyota Tacoma.- The overnight low before the search dropped to 19 degrees Fahrenheit.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: [email protected].