A Four-Hour Float, Three Days Lost | E 259

A summer tubing trip on Michigan’s Muskegon River was supposed to last just four hours. But when two women and a nine-year-old boy failed to return, a massive search and rescue operation began.Boats, helicopters, drones, K-9 teams and crews from four counties searched miles of river and dense Michigan wilderness for the three missing tubers. With few reliable clues and the search growing more urgent, investigators kept coming back to one strange detail—a pool tube caught in a pile of flood debris.This week on The Crux: True Survival Stories, a casual day on the river becomes a wilderness survival ordeal and a remarkable search for three missing people.

00:00 The Sound of Traffic, But No Road

00:30 Lost Surprisingly Close to Civilization

01:18 A Four-Hour Float on the Muskegon

02:16 The Flood That Changed the River

3:45 When Low Water Becomes Dangerous

05:06 A Spur-of-the-Moment River Trip

07:17 The Two-Minute Plan They Didn't Have

09:00 Everything Changes at a Log Jam

09:47 The Decision That Changed the Search

11:39 Why We Keep Moving When We're Lost

16:19 Three Days No One Can Account For