Minnesota woman rescued after three days trapped in deep mud

A 68-year-old Minnesota woman was pulled from a mud hole after spending three days missing in a remote wooded area near Park Rapids. Kathryn Woessner was found almost completely submerged, with rescuers saying the mud had trapped her like quicksand.

Woessner was last seen on June 3 and was found on June 6, according to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office. By the time Adam Sandbeck and Mike Gravalin came across her while riding a UTV, or side-by-side, on an unexpected trail, she had been missing for about three days and was roughly 80 miles from home.

Sandbeck said he and Gravalin had been exploring a new route on Saturday afternoon when they spotted a minivan stuck in a mud hole on a heavily wooded trail. The men estimated the mud was about two feet deep and said Woessner remained stuck after slipping and falling into it. Authorities said she did not have any personal belongings with her, and investigators are still trying to determine how she ended up so far from home.

The rescue highlights how quickly a remote-trail emergency can turn dangerous, especially for an older adult alone in rough terrain. Prolonged entrapment in mud can leave a person unable to move, expose them to direct sun for hours, and intensify dehydration as the body loses fluids and energy. In Woessner’s case, officials said she suffered sun exposure and dehydration, but she is expected to make a full recovery.

The recovery also underscored the role of chance and local knowledge in search efforts. A missed turn on a wooded trail led Sandbeck and Gravalin to Woessner when traditional visibility was low and the area was hard to reach. For rural search teams, cases like this show why remote mud, side trails and off-road corridors matter, especially when a missing person is last seen far from where she is eventually found.