A 68-year-old Minnesota woman who had been missing for three days was found alive over the weekend, nearly submerged in a puddle of mud in the woods.
Kathryn Jane Woessner of Alexandria was located west of Backus, about 80 miles from the city where she lives, NBC News reported. She had last been seen on June 3.
Two off-road riders found her on June 6. They had decided that morning to skip their usual route and try a trail one of them had never mapped in his life.
That decision is the whole story.
A missing woman was found in a Minnesota puddle of mud where she told her rescuers she had been stuck for days. https://t.co/sMsUivC6k5
— World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews) June 12, 2026
Adam Sandbeck of West Fargo, North Dakota, and his friend Mike Gravalin normally ride their own machines and stick to familiar paths. On June 6 they climbed into one rig together and went looking for new trails.
On one of those trails they came across a minivan stuck in a mudhole. As they got closer, they saw a woman lying on the ground next to it.
Here is how the men described what she told them, according to ABC News:
A missing woman was found in a Minnesota puddle of mud where she told her rescuers she had been stuck for days. Kathryn Woessner, 68, was last seen on June 3 before her rescuers found her on June 6, according to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.
Woessner did not have any personal belongings with her, according to the sheriff’s office. Woessner told the men who rescued her that her car was stuck and she was trying to get out when she went around to the other side, slipping and falling into a puddle that was probably 2 feet deep, according to Mike Gravalin and Adam Sandbeck, the two men who saved her.
Woessner told the men the mud was like quicksand, they told KSTP. Woessner told the men she had been stuck on her back for days and she was seriously sunburned on her face, Gravalin and Sandbeck told KSTP.
Due to her medical conditions, she was taken to Essentia Health- St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Brained, according to the sheriff’s office.
She was conscious when they reached her and saying, “Help me,” according to Valley News Live.
The men pulled her to a safer spot and called 911. They gave dispatchers GPS coordinates from the Polaris Ride Command system so paramedics could find them on the remote trail.
The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office confirmed she was found alive.
Because of her medical condition, she was taken to Essentia Health-St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Brainerd.
Sandbeck kept coming back to how strange the day was. He told People that almost nothing about that ride was normal for them:
A missing woman has been brought to safety after three days thanks to two men who discovered her stuck in the mud as they were riding down a remote Minnesota trail.
Speaking with the Enterprise, Sandbeck and Gravalin shared that they had opted to take different path than they usually ride.
“What’s so crazy about how that all happened is we usually take our own machines. We usually have two machines.
We usually stay on the routes that we’re familiar with,” Sandbeck told the outlet.
“We’re usually going through pretty fast because we like to slip and slide around. But, for some reason, I decided to ride with Mike.”
“And for some reason, we decided to go and try to find new trails. And for some reason, we went down that trail,” he continued.
Sandbeck told WCCO, “I have never mapped that trail in my life ever.”
ADVERTISEMENTHe added, “We changed everything how we do everything, for some reason. And it had to be God, it had to be.”
The rescue hinged on decisions the men still cannot fully explain.
A different machine, a different trail, and a half-formed decision to turn down an unfamiliar path made the difference between another missing-person notice and a woman coming home alive.
Three days on her back in the woods, sunburned and stuck in mud she compared to quicksand, with no belongings and no way to call for help. She was running out of time.
Two men who almost never break their routine broke all of it on the one day it counted, and found her with enough strength left to whisper.
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.
