Word 'Help' Found Scrawled On Dirt Road By Hunters Leads To Missing Idaho Teen

A teen boy and his stepfather were deer hunting in Idaho when the stumbled upon the phrase “help” written on a dirt road, a word which eventually led them to locate a missing teen girl.

Ryle Gordon, 15, and his stepdad, Chris Trumbich, told ABC News that they were hunting deer in the Hayden area on Saturday, November 3, when they came across the troubling scribble. Gordon remembered seeing on social media that a girl had gone missing in the area.

Kathryn “Katie” Ogle, a 19-year-old with multiple medical alerts and the cognitive ability of someone aged about 11, had been missing since Nov. 1, according to police.

As Gordon and Trumbich drove up the dirt road that leads to their family cabin, they noticed the word “help” written on the ground, etched out in the dirt. Gordon told KFBB, an outlet in Montana, that something about it felt “creepy” and he took a photo of it, just in case.

Gordon later showed that picture to rescue workers who followed the teen and his step-dad to scope out the area. It was there that they could hear Ogle.

"He (a rescue worker) turns around and yells, 'Hello?' Then, we heard a 'Hello' over the ridge," Trumbich told KFBB.

She was found next to a sleeping bag.

Katie Ogle

"She looked very scared when she came out, like she was scared she was going to get in trouble like we were going to yell at her for being in the cabin. Katie, if you're watching this, we're just happy you're alive," Gordon told KFBB.

Police stated that she was found alive on Saturday afternoon.

“She appears to be in relatively good condition and is being cared for by medical personell [sic] on scene,” police wrote. The teen was later transported to a health facility as a precautionary measure.

[Photo: Kootenai County Sheriff's Office]