Scary Horror Stories

The Sneaker Pointing North: How Ruth Vanished Into the Cold

A single pink sneaker, its toe pointing due north like a compass, lay eleven miles from the nearest road in undisturbed snow with no blood or drag marks-how did a 24-year-old receptionist vanish into Sablewood National Forest and leave such a precise clue? What happened to Ruth Vaughn in the nineteen hours between leaving the trail with a four-year-old and being found that makes the north-pointing shoe the only unsolved detail?

In this episode, we follow the timeline of Ruth Vaughn’s disappearance and the search-and-rescue effort that nearly failed, tracing the choices, clues, and cold that defined the case and asking whether one stubborn detail holds the answer.

Person: Ruth Vaughn
Date: January 14, 2019 (shoe found at 7:40 AM)
Location: Sablewood National Forest, eleven miles from nearest road
Status: Missing at time of photograph; sneaker retained as evidence
Search lead: Bloodhound Birch tracked a committed northeast line to an iced-over culvert

- Ruth Vaughn was 24 years old and worked as a receptionist in Cavell, Oregon.
- At approximately 2:15 PM on January 12, Maisie wandered into brush and Ruth went after her; Maisie returned but Ruth did not.
- Ruth’s coat was found folded on a log at the trailhead at 6:17 PM with her car keys in the pocket.
- The pink sneaker was dry, snow around it undisturbed, and its toe pointed due north at 7:40 AM on January 14.
- Bloodhound Birch tracked a hard northeast line about 400 yards uphill to a culvert with an ice-coated gravel surface that held no scent.

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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.

The Boot on the Gate: How a Trail Suddenly Vanished

A single right boot, looped over a locked gate with no footprints around it, triggered a search that followed a scent two and a half miles into the backcountry - then ended on a bare rocky bench as if the person simply vanished. What could a solitary boot, soil in its tread that matches nowhere, and a campsite with a fire ring later dated by radiocarbon possibly mean for the man found alive eleven miles away?

In this episode, we lay out the timeline and discoveries from the Dunmore Road gate through the search in Kessler Hollow, from the missing-man report to the scent trail and the odd footprint sequence in Orsen Wash, asking what the unexplained boot and the radiocarbon result reveal about where Edward Price had been and when.

Person: Edward Price
Date: December 3 (boot found); truck noted Dec 6-8; missing-persons filed Dec 9; search assembled Dec 10-12
Location: Dunmore Road gate, Kessler Hollow, Calverton County
Status: Boot in Calverton County Sheriff's evidence inventory; man later found alive eleven miles away
Event: Radiocarbon test on campsite fire ring conducted months after search

- One right boot was found looped over the top rail of a locked gate at six fifteen a.m, on December 3 with no footprints nearby.
- Search dogs followed a scent trail two and a half miles along a ridgeline before the scent ended abruptly on a rocky bench.
- A green pickup was observed sitting in the Dunmore Road pullout on December 6, December 8, and reported on December 9, implying it had sat there at least seventy-two hours.
- Boot prints in Orsen Wash showed a lug-sole size ten-eleven with a forty-two-inch stride measured over approximately sixty feet.
- Edward Price was forty-eight, had eleven years’ experience walking remote ground, and kept laminated emergency cards in every pack noting blood type and penicillin allergy.

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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.

The Jacket That Shouldn't Exist: Alone, Cold, Three Miles Lost

Cold, alone, and dressed in trail runners in four-degree weather, a woman walked out of unmapped backcountry three and a half miles from where search dogs lost the trail - wearing a men's olive canvas jacket with the name "Tom Fleming" stitched inside, while the identical jacket hung in a closet forty-one miles away. How did Kathleen Fleming cross that distance in those conditions and leave behind a jacket that should not have existed at the scene?

In this episode, we tell the events of a single night and the hours that followed, following search teams, a dog handler, and a county investigator as they try to account for impossible movements and conflicting evidence. What really happened between Tolliver Creek Trailhead and Millburn Pass Road that night?

Person: Kathleen Fleming
Date: November 14, 2017
Location: Millburn Pass Road / Tolliver Creek Trailhead
Status: Alive
Case: Missing-and-found with conflicting clothing evidence

- Kathleen Fleming left work at approximately 4:30 PM on November 13, 2017 and drove to Tolliver Creek Trailhead.
- Pocket, her ten-year-old Alaskan husky, missed scheduled feeding at 7:00 AM, prompting concern.
- Tom Fleming called the sheriff’s department at 9:17 PM on November 13, 2017 to report Kathleen missing.
- Search-and-rescue teams arrived at Tolliver Creek Trailhead by 10:45 PM and found Kathleen’s truck and phone locked inside.
- At 6:15 AM on November 14, 2017, Alice Simmons found Kathleen seated against a rock on Millburn Pass Road wearing an extra-large olive canvas jacket labeled "Tom Fleming" while an identical jacket hung in a closet in Dunbar, forty-one miles away.

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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.

Seventeen Cairns, One Line: The Trail That Knew Her Name

Something was waiting for her on a perfect bearing before she ever set foot on the trail: seventeen stone cairns spaced forty to one hundred feet apart, pointing northeast along a sixty-two-degree line toward an unnamed drainage at 9,440 feet - and when Holly Jenkins was found eleven and a half miles from the trailhead, she had been dead for nearly two weeks. Who built those markers and why did an anonymous email with coordinates matching her death site to within thirty meters end up folded in her pack?

In this episode, we follow the facts of Holly Jenkins’s disappearance and the physical evidence that preceded her trip: the map in her classroom marked “check again,” fourteen months of online research into the Sawback Wilderness, Frances Adams’s pre-dawn discovery of the cairns, and the printed, partially legible email found on Holly that matched the location. What do the cairns, the map notation, and the untraceable message together reveal about where she was going - and who expected her there?

Person: Holly Jenkins
Date: October 14 (departure); found October 29
Location: Sawback Wilderness, unnamed drainage at 9,440 feet
Status: Case open, no arrest
Cause of death: Hypothermia

- Holly Jenkins was 52 years old and had taught biology at Morrow High School for 19 years.
- Seventeen stone cairns were built on a 62-degree northeast bearing, spaced between 40 and 100 feet apart.
- The cairns led straight toward an unnamed drainage at 9,440 feet, ending 11.5 miles from the Hobson Trailhead where Holly was found.
- An anonymous email printed in Holly’s pack contained coordinates matching her death site within 30 meters; server logs were purged before investigators could retrieve them.
- Inside Holly’s classroom map, a penciled line to the same drainage terminated with the handwritten note “check again,” after 14 months of her online research into the area.

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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.

The Upright Boot: How a Teacher Walked Away From the Granite Shelf

A hiking boot, women's size eight, stood perfectly upright on a granite shelf - laces tucked inside, tongue folded flat - while the owner sat alive 1,300 feet below and three ridges east with a fractured ankle and a core temperature of 94.1°F. How did a meticulous, route-planning sixth-grade teacher with twenty years of local hiking experience leave a pole inverted in the trail and cross miles of rough terrain on a broken ankle in the dark?

In this episode, we follow the timeline from Patricia O'Brien's signed trail permit to the search team's trace evidence, laying out the specific clues recovered on the Coldwater Range and asking how those fragments of evidence fit together to explain her movement and survival.

Person: Patricia O'Brien
Date: September 14, 2019
Location: Copper Basin Trailhead / Coldwater Range
Status: Found alive with fractured ankle
Profession: Sixth-grade earth science teacher

- A left-foot women's size eight hiking boot stood upright on a granite shelf at 7:41 AM, laces tucked inside and tongue folded flat.
- Patricia's core body temperature measured 94.1°F when rescuers found her 1,300 feet below the shelf and three ridges east.
- She left Alder Street at 5:50 AM and signed a trail permit at 7:03 AM listing Harlow Lake, a 14-mile out-and-back with 2,200 feet elevation gain.
- A trekking pole was found inverted in the soil at mile 6.2 (Copper Basin) with the handle down and tip up; Patricia had left with two poles and one was never found.
- Trace evidence reconstructed across roughly four miles included a partial left boot print in decomposed granite, a strip of dark green fleece caught at hip height 15 feet northeast of the print, a handprint in soft soil, a scuff on a rock face, and a torn boot lace.

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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.