{"id":19311,"date":"2024-07-30T10:04:33","date_gmt":"2024-07-30T14:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?p=19311"},"modified":"2024-07-30T10:04:33","modified_gmt":"2024-07-30T14:04:33","slug":"ohio-man-missing-for-14-days-found-alive-after-search-team-member-prays-truly-a-miracle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2024\/07\/ohio-man-missing-for-14-days-found-alive-after-search-team-member-prays-truly-a-miracle.html","title":{"rendered":"Ohio Man Missing For 14 Days Found Alive After Search Team Member Prays: ‘Truly a Miracle’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Wolfe County Search & Rescue\/Facebook<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An Ohio man who went missing in the Red River Gorge area of Kentucky was found alive after two weeks and 12 days without any water or food. Scott Hern\u2019s rescue came merely one day after Wolfe County Search and Rescue team member Eric Wolterman, who described himself as \u201cnot religious,\u201d felt compelled to pray for the 48-year-old man.<\/p>\n

Wolterman said in\u00a0a statement shared by the search and rescue team<\/a>, \u201cI am not a very religious person, but yesterday morning, I woke up and said a prayer for Scott Hern and his family. To be honest, praying isn\u2019t something that I do too often. We have been working on this operation since Tuesday, and most of the team went into the day pretty much with the thought that this was going to be a recovery mission. So I said a prayer, knowing the family would probably be getting some very sad news that day.\u201d As the searcher recalled, that day was going to be the team\u2019s last day looking for Hern, regardless of what they found\u00a0\u2014 or didn\u2019t find.<\/p>\n

The area they searched, Wolterman said, was the \u201croughest terrain\u201d in a \u201cvery dangerous\u201d part of the Daniel Boone National Forest. It was during the last-ditch search effort that the team found footprints in mud they had not seen before. \u201cWe stopped to regroup, and one of the people on the team heard a very faint noise,\u201d Wolterman wrote. \u201cWe paused, and we shouted, \u2018Who is that?\u2019 Thinking it was another search team. I then heard, \u2018Help.\u2019 We took off in that direction. As we got closer, [we] asked what his name was and he [said], \u2018Scott Hern.\u2019 I have never moved faster uphill in my entire life.\u201d<\/p>\n