Missing Minnesota woman found alive after days stuck in mud

A stranded minivan in a flooded Minnesota trail led two West Fargo men to a discovery that turned a routine ATV ride into a life-saving rescue. Kathryn Woessner, 68, of Alexandria, was found alive west of Backus after being missing for days, her body partly submerged in mud beside the vehicle.

Woessner had last been seen on June 3 and was rescued on June 6 after the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension issued an Endangered Missing Person Alert. The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said she was located west of Backus, more than 100 miles from her home, in a heavily wooded area that had been made rough and flooded by recent storms. Police are still trying to determine why she was there.

Adam Sandbeck and Mike Gravalin were riding a Polaris ATV side-by-side when they took an unfamiliar trail and came upon the stuck minivan. Sandbeck said the scene was hard to miss. "We noticed there was a body in the puddle next to the van," he said. "She uttered up to us, 'Help me.'"

Woessner told the men her van had become stuck, she got out and slipped, and then fell into mud she compared to quicksand. She said she had been on her back for days and had watched "the sun go up and down a couple of times." She was badly sunburned and had no personal belongings with her when rescuers reached her.

The response moved fast once the men called for help. Volunteer firefighters, paramedics and law enforcement arrived within about 20 minutes, using coordinates from the tracking device on the ATV. The rescuers then helped get Woessner out of the mud and to medical care at Essentia Health-St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Brainerd because of her medical conditions.

Sandbeck later said on Facebook that "the hand of God" helped save Woessner and that he wanted to underscore the importance of rural ambulance crews and law enforcement. He said he spoke with Woessner the next day and that she was out of the hospital and recovering with family.

The rescue exposed how quickly a vulnerable person can disappear in rural terrain and how much depends on alert systems, volunteer crews and ordinary people willing to stop when something looks wrong. In this case, the search ended not with a formal sweep, but with two riders on a flooded trail noticing a van, a body in the mud and a voice still asking for help.