n the summer of 1994, 11-year-old Mark arrived at a summer camp in rural New Jersey expecting the usual weeks of swimming, games, and time with friends. Instead, he and three other boys ended up swimming to a remote dock…
In July 2013, 49-year-old Matt Dyer joined a two-week wilderness expedition to Canada’s remote Torngat Mountains. He knew the trip would be difficult. The region had no roads, cell service, campsites, or nearby medical facilities. But Matt did not expect…
In 1953, 11-year-old Jerry Monkman disappeared during a Boy Scout camping trip in the Rocky Mountains. Jerry was small, thin, and suffered from severe asthma. Physical activity was difficult for him, yet he loved hiking and spending time outdoors. On…
Kevin O’Keefe went to Alaska in 1985 looking for peace, solitude, and a few weeks in the wilderness. He chose one of the most remote places he could find: Glacier Bay National Park. He prepared for the trip by taking…
On July 4, 2006, Pascal Norris sat down for another session at his regular drumming class in Scotland. For Pascal, drumming had become much more than a hobby. After surviving leukemia and chemotherapy, music gave him a new sense of…
On January 16, 2004, Jodie Lane left her apartment in New York City’s East Village for a routine evening walk with her two dogs. It was cold, and snow still covered parts of the streets. But Jodie regularly walked her…
One night in November 2009, a man named Mikhail was sitting at his computer in Cambrai, France, playing Counter-Strike. Like millions of other players, he enjoyed the game as a way to escape everyday life. After work, bills, family problems,…
On the night of October 14, 2010, 46-year-old Nathalie Villermet finished work at the Rose Garden, the bar and boarding house she owned on the outskirts of Paris, France. She had spent years looking after difficult tenants and regular customers,…
Dale Earnhardt Jr. was used to dangerous moments behind the wheel. But on July 18, 2004, a warm-up lap at Sonoma Raceway nearly cost him his life. Earnhardt Jr. was driving a Chevrolet Corvette C5-R during an American Le Mans…
On New Year’s Day 2023, actor Jeremy Renner was seriously injured in a snowplow accident near his home outside Reno, Nevada. What began as an attempt to help a family member stuck in the snow quickly turned into a life-threatening…