Tubers Lost 3 Days in Remote Michigan Woods Found Safe

Two women and a child who set out for a four-hour tubing trip on Michigan's Muskegon River instead spent three days lost in remote woods before rescuers found them safe, authorities said Tuesday.

Michigan State Police identified the trio as Jazzmin Hock, 28, of Muskegon; her cousin, Sarah Vida, 28, also of Muskegon; and Vida's 9-year-old son, Kayden Kovalcik. They were treated at medical facilities for scrapes, cuts, dehydration and exhaustion and released over the weekend, said State Police Lt. Pat Agema.

Authorities said their tubes deflated after striking a logjam on the river. The deflated tubes were found on the second day of a three-day water, air and land search.

The search began after the father of one of the women found his daughter's vehicle parked at the Maple Island Boat Launch in Grant with a broken window. Family members told authorities they had been unable to reach the three.

Rescuers found the group Friday in dense woods and thick ground cover, an area conservation officers said was the most remote spot along the river, nearly a mile from the nearest road or house. Two state troopers and three officers from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources tracked footprints in the mud, bent grass and disturbed ferns to locate them.

Body camera video captured the moment rescuers reached the group. The 9-year-old boy excitedly recounted the ordeal, saying they had been on the river for four hours before getting lost. State Trooper Zach Murphy embraced Hock, whose legs bore cuts, and gave her a shirt. One of the women told a conservation officer she could not recall when she had last had water.

Conservation Officer Cameron Wright said the team recognized the danger of the location immediately. "We knew this specific location is the most remote area that the tubers could have been pulled to, and it would be a bad spot to get lost because it's the furthest point from any roads or houses," he said.

Murphy said he was stunned to find the group alive. "The thought that kept going through my head was I can't believe that three people, allegedly in bathing suits, with no shoes on, were making the trek through that swamp," he said, calling the rescue a "fourth-quarter, fourth-down, Hail Mary victory."