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Two ATV riders made a shocking discovery when they decided to venture off their usual paths and happened upon a woman who had gone missing nearly 100 miles away.
Kathryn Woessner, 68, disappeared on June 3 without any personal belongings around Akeley, Minnesota, which is about three hours north of Minneapolis, the Cass County Sheriff's Office announced.
Police said Woessner was endangered and had medical conditions, raising further concerns about her safety.
Three days later, two friends, Adam Sandbeck and Mike Gravalin, ventured out on their ATVs to explore a new route off the beaten path.
The pair recalled to NBC affiliate, KARE, that they stopped cold when they saw a van parked in the middle of nowhere.
They noted that the vehicle lacked the off-road capability to handle the path and wondered how it got there.
'We could see that there was a body in the puddle next to the van, and then that's when it got real,' Sandbeck told the outlet.
'When we walked up, we thought she was dead. We thought it was just a body, and then she whispered, "Help me," and it scared the crap out of me.'
Adam Sandbeck and Mike Gravalin decided to try a new path on their ATVs. Although they were expecting a different experience, they had no idea what was in store when they found a missing woman
Kathryn Woessner, 68, was declared an endangered missing person on June 3. She was found in a puddle of mud by two men three days later
The two men said they saw Woessner's van first and then found her buried in the mud trying to call for help. They pulled her out and called emergency services
He added that all he could see was the top of Woessner's head, and the rest of her body from her ears down was submerged.
Sandbeck said Woessner looked like she was in 'really bad shape' and had been stuck 'forever.'
'She said it was like quicksand, and she couldn't get out,' he explained.
The two men worked to pull Woessner out of the sand and called emergency services.
They said their ATVs track their location, and they gave paramedics and volunteer firefighters their coordinates.
Gravalin told KARE that it was a stroke of luck that the pair even passed by the area where Woessner was trapped. 'We've driven past it for the last eight years and never went down,' he said.
Sandbeck shared his story on social media, writing that he and Gravalin are planning to take the original ride they had scheduled for Saturday morning.
The men said that they found Woessner's van first and wondered how it drove on the rough terrain
The alert for Woessner was canceled, and she was taken to a local hospital. Sandbeck said he spoke with her after the incident
'Instead we went exploring and found Kathryn….Thank God we did!!' he wrote.
'If there are two positives I can take away from this and promote it would be… God is real…. and how important rural volunteers of the fire department and paramedics agencies are to local areas. The real heroes are those people,' Sandbeck added.
The sheriff's office canceled the missing person alert for Woessner, and she was taken to a local hospital after the incident.
Sandbeck told KARE that he has since called Woessner to check up on her and described her as a strong woman.
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