The Boot, The Map, and the Canyon That Moves You

The Boot, The Map, and the Canyon That Moves You

A solitary boot stood upright on gravel at 4:47 a.m. on June 14, 2019 - heel centered, containing a crisp hand-drawn map with the word "water" circled inside, and six and a half miles away a 23-year-old woman was missing; how did a scent trail simply stop on bare sandstone and why had prior hikers disappeared in the same seven-day June window across decades? What connection ties the boot, the map, and the canyon’s uncanny pattern of vanishings?

In this episode, we follow the timeline and the people involved from the moment Todd Bennett photographed the boot through the early search days, presenting the evidence found on scene and the historical incidents in the same drainage; can the physical clues - the map, the stopped scent, the full pack left below the only filtered water source - point to what happened to Jennifer Perry?

Person: Jennifer Perry
Date: June 11-14, 2019
Location: Vermillion Fork Canyon / Ocher Arm drainage
Age: 23
Item found: woman's size 7 left brown leather boot with hand-drawn map inside

- Photo taken at 4:47 a.m. on June 14, 2019 by 16-year-old newspaper carrier Todd Bennett on a gravel access road outside Dunmore, Colorado.
- The map inside the boot was hand-drawn on notebook paper, ink dry and paper crisp, and matched the map Jennifer drew the night before her trip with "water" circled.
- Scent dogs followed Jennifer's trail from Saddleback Trailhead into Vermillion Fork and Ocher Arm, then the scent abruptly ended on bare sandstone at the Ocher Arm junction.
- Volunteer Pete Vargas found Jennifer's pack full approximately 800 meters below the only water source that required filtration, with the filter in the pack and water located above it.
- Incident history shows two prior events in the same drainage: Doug Ferris missing in June 2003 (found June 15, four miles away with a broken ankle and no memory) and Sandra Pruitt missing June 9, 1988 (found deceased June 17 from hyperthermia and dehydration).

To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.