Show Notes
In July 2025, 13-year-old Cody Trenkel Jr. set out on a routine skateboard ride through his grandmother's quiet Missouri neighborhood—and never made it to his destination. What began as a normal summer morning turned into a multi-day search across miles of wooded terrain, with no clear clues and time running out. As search teams struggled to narrow down where to look, one unexpected factor changed everything. This episode follows the critical decisions, the hidden dangers close to home, and the narrow window that can make the difference between life and death. 01:08 Podcast Intro 01:30 Meet Daryl The Bloodhound 03:29 How Cody Vanished 08:54 The Ravine Fall 10:34 Surviving Heat And Trauma 13:22 Three Day Search 15:21 Bloodhound Tracks The Trail 18:10 Rescue And ICU Fight 21:05 Recovery And Reunion 22:09 Other Bloodhound Saves 25:44 Prevention And Check Ins 29:58 First Aid If Found 33:35 Closing Reflections 35:37 Listener Outro SOURCES Neely, Shanie. "Paws to the Rescue: How a K-9 Helped Find a Missing Boy." Reader's Digest, April/May 2026. rd.com/article/dog-rescues-missing-boy/ "He's a Fighter: 13-Year-Old Missouri Teen Rescued Alive in Ravine After 76 Hours Missing." KSDK, July 31, 2025. ksdk.com "A Teen Missing for 3 Days Needed a Miracle — A Dog Came to the Rescue." WGRZ, September 2025. wgrz.com "Missing Boy Found in Missouri Ravine After 4 Days." KSDK, July 30, 2025. ksdk.com Holcombe, Madeline. "3-Year-Old Casey Hathaway Told Authorities a Bear Kept Him Company." CNN, January 29, 2019. cnn.com Heat Stroke. Mayo Clinic. mayoclinic.org Bloodhound Breed Information. American Kennel Club. akc.org Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-crux-true-survival-stories--7265181/support.
Listen AD FREE: Support our podcast at patreon: http://patreon.com/TheCruxTrueSurvivalPodcast Email us! [email protected] Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thecruxpodcast/ Get schooled by Julie in wilderness medicine! https://www.headwatersfieldmedicine.com/ Use discount code CRUX to get 10% off tuition on a 2-day Wilderness First Aid course!
This episode includes AI-generated content.
More from The Crux True Survival Stories
In November 1934, 20-year-old artist and adventurer Everett Ruess disappeared into the remote canyons of southern Utah with two burros and a desire to explore some of the wildest country in the American West. He was never seen again.When searchers eventually retraced his route, what they discovered raised more questions than answers. And as the years passed, the mystery surrounding his disappearance only deepened. Did Everett fall victim to the unforgiving desert landscape? Did he encounter someone dangerous? Or was there something else behind his disappearance? In this episode of The Crux True Survival Stories: Disaster Strikes, Kaycee and Julie investigate one of the American West's most enduring mysteries—a disappearance that has puzzled investigators, historians, and adventurers for more than 90 years.
In the vast, frozen wilderness of Nunavut, Canada, even the most experienced hunters know that a routine trip can become dangerous in an instant.When Inuit hunter Ernie Etak headed out onto the Arctic tundra in December 2021, he couldn't have imagined the ordeal that lay ahead—or just how far he would be pushed to survive.In this episode of The Crux, Kaycee and Julie share Ernie's extraordinary true story and explore the traditional Inuit knowledge, survival instincts, and remarkable physiology that can mean the difference between life and death in one of the harshest environments on Earth.What happens when the human body reaches its limits? And what allows some people to survive when the odds seem impossible?Join us for a gripping story of survival in the Canadian Arctic.
On a clear July evening in 2025, a seasoned hunting guide scouting for mule deer in Utah's Uinta Mountains felt his side-by-side begin to tilt at zero miles an hour. Minutes later, he lay on a steep slope with a shattered leg, his satellite messenger, radio, and phone scattered somewhere in the darkening brush, and only one companion left. What followed was an arduous journey of cold creek crossings, yipping coyotes, and a light no bigger than a quarter. Jake Schmitt thought he understood his dog, but somewhere in the dark, Buddy started doing something Jake still can't explain.
On May 24, 1998, a Canadian climber lost his footing on Denali's West Buttress and disappeared down the north face toward the Peters Glacier. Two National Park Service volunteer rangers were a hundred feet ahead of him. One of them radioed for permission to go down and look, got it, and started descending — and somewhere on that slope a decision was made that two separate federal investigations would spend the following year trying to explain. What happened next left one man clipped to a single ice screw in a storm, with no radio, waiting to find out whether anyone knew where he was. Thirteen days later, on the same stretch of ridge, it happened again.
A day hike in Glacier National Park turns into a fight for survival when 19-year-old Matthew Read encounters deep spring snow near Huckleberry Lookout.What begins as an ordinary hike quickly goes wrong, leaving Matthew stranded in steep, heavily forested terrain as changing weather and cold exposure raise the stakes.In this episode of The Crux: True Survival Stories, we follow Matthew’s three-night ordeal and the massive search effort unfolding around him. Along the way, we break down postholing in deep snow, wilderness survival strategy, hypothermia versus frostbite, and the challenges search-and-rescue teams face trying to locate one person in Glacier’s vast backcountry.How do you survive when a simple step into the snow changes everything?