Creepy Stories for Sleep

The Hood Cairn: Eight Stones Found Dry on Frosted Jeep Hood

A centered stack of eight native sandstone stones, fourteen inches high and dry on the undersides while everything else wore October frost, sat on the hood of a gray Jeep at 5:40 AM - and the owner never returned. How did a precisely balanced cairn, equidistant from both fenders and matching no known regional style, appear overnight on a vehicle in an empty trailhead with no eyewitnesses?

In this episode, we follow the recorded timeline from the Alderman Creek trailhead register to the first search-and-rescue response, laying out the physical details and the discrepancies that made the cairn inexplicable. What do the measurements, the Jeep's last GPS point, and the missing hiker's routine call pattern tell us about that morning?

Person: John Weber
Date: October 7-8, 2019
Location: Alderman Creek trailhead, Varro County
Status: Jeep found with cairn; owner missing then returned with no memory of cairn
Event: GPS recorder final log at 11:46 AM, two miles north of Pryor Bench

- Cairn composition: eight native sandstone stones stacked with a wide flat base and decreasing diameters, topped by a capstone.
- Cairn dimensions: stack measured fourteen inches high and placed dead center on the hood, equidistant from both fenders.
- Discovery time: Lauren Carlson photographed the cairn at 5:40 AM and called the non-emergency line at 5:51 AM.
- Trailhead register entry: John signed in at 7:22 AM on October 7, listed destination Pryor Bench via East Fork and wrote "return same day."
- GPS/data recorder: John's field instrument logged its final entry at 11:46 AM on Monday, placing him two miles north of Pryor Bench.

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© 2026 Created by an independent creator of the OBOMEDIA Network. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the property of their respective creator, who is solely responsible for them, and are distributed by the OBOMEDIA Network on platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and Pocket Casts. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without the creator's prior written permission is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.

The Boot on the Granite: How He Walked Away Without a Shoe

The sight was ordinary and impossible: a single dry leather boot, right foot, laces tied, sitting on an otherwise dew-soaked granite shelf-found at 6:40 a.m. on September 14, 2019-while the man who owned it had been missing for two days. How could search teams walk past that boot in the dark and later find the owner alive with an explanation that still left the coordinator unsettled?

In this episode, we follow the timeline from a routine hike signed at 9:17 a.m. to a choice to investigate a thin column of smoke that pulled a precise, experienced hiker off his route. We trace the terrain, the search decisions made by the county SAR coordinator, and the unanswered question that stayed with the rescuers: what really happened between the granite shelves and Briar Basin?

Person: Larry Petersen
Date: September 12-14, 2019
Location: Whetstone Basin trail / granite shelves above 6,000 feet
Status: Found alive after two days missing
Coordinator: Ruth Stein

- The boot was discovered by Patricia Mills on September 14, 2019 at 6:40 a.m., dry on wet granite.
- Larry Petersen signed the trail register at 9:17 a.m, on September 12, 2019 declaring Larkspur Lake as his destination.
- Larry was 55 years old, a retired civil engineer, with 30 years of backcountry hiking experience.
- The search was formally launched at 11:00 a.m. on September 13 after Frank Dubois reported Larry’s truck remained at the trailhead.
- Two cadaver-detection dogs (a Belgian Malinois and a black Labrador) searched the Larkspur Lake inlet and found no trace of Larry.

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© 2026 Created by an independent creator of the OBOMEDIA Network. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the property of their respective creator, who is solely responsible for them, and are distributed by the OBOMEDIA Network on platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and Pocket Casts. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without the creator's prior written permission is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.

He Walked Eleven Miles In The Dark - Boot Tied, Rock Clutched

Cold, precise details refuse simple answers: a twenty-three-year-old hiker found alive with a core temperature of 89.4°F, one boot still laced and tied in a square knot, and a pale rock clutched in his hand - eleven miles from the summit by any mapped trail. How did someone with a functional headlamp and years of wilderness experience end up where no route explains and with evidence that makes little geographic sense?

In this episode, we lay out the timeline, the physical scene, and the statements in the official search-and-rescue record to show what is known and what remains without a calculable probability. Follow the account from the last confirmed summit signature through the sudden weather change and the baffling details at Tenmile Drainage that force the central question: what happened in the dark?

Person: Harvey Peterson
Date: August 4, 2019 (call at 7:48 AM)
Location: Tenmile Drainage, central Oregon
Status: Alive on discovery; core temperature 89.4°F
Item: Black Diamond Spot headlamp (rated 200 hours)

- Peterson signed the summit register at Saddleback Peak at 2:47 PM.
- The summit is approximately 7,200 feet; trail distance to Tenmile Drainage gate is 11.3 miles.
- Temperature dropped 18°F in under an hour around 6:00 PM with wind and fog onset.
- Peterson was found 600 yards past the locked service gate on a gravel maintenance path.
- One boot was on his right foot while the other boot stood upright on the road with laces tied in a square knot.

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© 2026 Created by an independent creator of the OBOMEDIA Network. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the property of their respective creator, who is solely responsible for them, and are distributed by the OBOMEDIA Network on platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and Pocket Casts. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without the creator's prior written permission is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.

Lantern on the Hood: What Pulled Her Back Down the Mountain

A brass-and-glass kerosene lantern burned steadily on the hood of a locked government pickup at 6:15 a.m. on July 17, 2011, with no authorized visitors at the trailhead for seven days - and the woman assigned to the tower had no memory of lighting it. What pulled Rebecca Thorpe down from a locked fire cab at 9,040 feet, carrying a personal lantern and leaving a cold mug of coffee inside?

In this episode, we follow the timeline from the first call to the trailhead to the search that led dogs and rescuers into a boulder field off-trail, and explore the evidence that suggests her mind was failing even as her body kept moving. How did deliberate actions like bringing her own lantern and photographing the same cottonwood tree for months fit with a disappearance that ended where scent simply stopped on sun-warmed granite?

Person: Rebecca Thorpe
Date: July 17, 2011
Location: Draper Knob tower, Cañada Fría Wilderness, 9,040 ft
Status: Missing (no memory of leaving tower reported)
Witness: Curtis Turner (ran County Road Nine, discovered lantern at 6:15 a.m.)

- Lantern: brass-and-glass kerosene lantern found burning on hood of locked green government pickup at 6:15 a.m.
- Tower elevation: fire lookout cab located at 9,040 feet, two and a half miles up a single switchback trail.
- Time absent: cold mug of coffee inside locked cab indicated she had been gone at minimum four to five hours before discovery.
- Authorization gap: ranger station log showed no authorized personnel at the trailhead between July 10 and July 17.
- Search dogs: bloodhound and Belgian Malinois followed scent northeast into boulder field about 400 yards off the trail where scent ended on sun-warmed granite.

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© 2026 Created by an independent creator of the OBOMEDIA Network. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the property of their respective creator, who is solely responsible for them, and are distributed by the OBOMEDIA Network on platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and Pocket Casts. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without the creator's prior written permission is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.

The Boots Left on the Driveway: How Sharon Vanished from the Trail

The morning a county meter reader found two hiking boots with laces tied, toes pointed to the road, and a dark smear near the toe, Sharon Richardson had already been missing thirty-four days. A phone with a precise timestamp shows a Juniper Flats trailhead photo taken at 5:47 AM while that same phone sat locked inside her truck - so who took the picture, and where did Sharon actually go?

In this episode, we lay out the sequence of people, places, and timestamps that track Sharon's last known hours and the baffling gaps that followed. You’ll hear who saw her on the trail, what was left in her truck, and the one photograph that refuses to make sense: can those scenes be reconciled, or does the trail hide a different truth?

Person: Sharon Richardson
Date: June 5, 2019
Location: Juniper Flats trailhead, Cerro Largo National Forest
Status: Missing after last confirmed trail encounters
Case: Multiple eyewitness contacts with two different hikers who saw the same injured woman

- Two hiking boots were found on a gravel driveway with laces tied, toes pointing toward the road, and a dried smear of red clay plus a darker stain near the edge.
- Sharon’s phone took a photograph of the Juniper Flats trailhead at 5:47 AM while the phone itself was later found locked inside her gray pickup truck.
- Inside Sharon’s truck investigators found a sleeping bag, a change of clothes, a paper-bag lunch that was never opened, and her phone; trekking poles and summit pack were missing.
- On June 6 at about 2:15 PM Jim and Sandra Holbert found a woman matching Sharon’s description with a swollen right ankle, walked her 1.5 miles to the parking lot, and watched her get into a gray pickup that did not move.
- At about 4:50 PM the same day hiker Dennis Park encountered a similar woman about two miles out, walked her to the trailhead, and again watched her enter the same gray pickup truck that remained parked all day.

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© 2026 Created by an independent creator of the OBOMEDIA Network. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the property of their respective creator, who is solely responsible for them, and are distributed by the OBOMEDIA Network on platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and Pocket Casts. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without the creator's prior written permission is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.