Two Ohio women, who went missing in New Mexico for days after they were supposed to board their flight home from vacation, are sharing the details of their fight to survive after they ventured out on a more scenic driving route and got stuck in a “mud pit.”
Robyn Bodine, 46, and Tracie Shoe, 52, had checked out of their resort hotel in a town called Truth or Consequences in southwestern New Mexico on March 28, a Tuesday, and began a six-hour drive toward the Phoenix Airport to fly home when they decided to take a scenic detour, according to a local report.
“The roads were pretty crazy and not very safe, so it was a very slow process to get through some areas,” Bodine told the Dayton Daily News. “I went to check Facebook, and I realized I didn’t have service, so I said, ‘Wait a second. Tracie, we lost GPS.'”
As they continued driving, the sun essentially melted the road, creating hazardous driving conditions. Their rental car got stuck in the mud twice, and they were unable to free it the second time, according to the outlet.
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Robyn Bodine, 46, and Tracie Shoe, 52, were vacationing in a town called Truth or Consequences in southwestern New Mexico when they disappeared. (Truth or Consequences PD)
“We were just down in a mud pit, basically,” Bodine said.
She and Shoe devised a plan to walk in both directions in search of cellphone service. On the first day they were lost, they walked about 17 miles, Bodine told the Dayton Daily.
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At nighttime, the two friends heard “animal sounds” and decided to turn back to their car, which was approximately eight miles away.
“We had about two miles left when I misjudged what I thought was a mud puddle, which was actually more like a mud pit,” Bodine recalled, adding that she lost her shoes in the process. “I had to walk the rest of the way barefoot, which did a lot of damage and hindered me a lot more.”
The next morning, on March 29, Shoe and Bodine went to find a water source. They stumbled upon an abandoned hunting cabin, where they found matches and wood that they used to make a fire and boil water, according to the Dayton Daily.
That same day, their families filed missing persons reports, prompting law enforcement agencies in Ohio and New Mexico, with help from the FBI, to search for the two women.
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Authorities traced their cellphone data to determine where they lost service and then narrowed their search to a specific area by using Google Maps.
Hours later, in Gila National Forest, which has more than 3 million acres of wilderness and mountains, search crews located Shoe and Bodine on a remote road.
Search crews located Shoe and Bodine on a remote road in Gila National Forest, which has more than 3 million acres of wilderness and mountains. (U.S. Forest Service)
Richard Ruggieri, a special agent with the FBI’s Cincinnati field office, told the Dayton Daily that the two friends “had the wherewithal to understand the situation and to not freak out.
“We’re the law enforcement, so we have a plan for everything. I would offer to the community to do the same thing: Have a plan,” he said.
Prior to their disappearance, Bodine and Shoe had been vacationing at Riverbed Hot Springs in Truth or Consequences – a resort that boasts it is “the one and only hot springs resort on the banks of the Rio Grande.”
