On Tuesday, three days since his last meal, soaking wet and shivering, Ashley Benbrook knew he needed to get help. Soon. He and two friends — Jennifer Burkey, 18, and Joseph Dobyns, 32 — became stranded Saturday in the Boise National Forest after their truck ran into a ditch.

After days of wandering, Benbrook, 23, started walking on a snow-covered road at noon on Tuesday. He was fighting creeping delirium and fatigue, and the last time he saw Burkey, his girlfriend, was Monday. She had collapsed in the snow, but he reasoned that he needed to go for help.

"I wasn't hungry anymore, I was just empty," he said. "I was picking up wads of snow and pretending it was Whoppers."

In an interview late Wednesday at his Boise apartment, Benbrook talked publicly for the first time about the ordeal thatultimately claimed Burkey's life. The Boise County Sheriff's Office is still investigating the incident, and an autopsy on Burkey's body is scheduled for today.

The ordeal began Saturday, when the trio made an impromptu trip to the Boise Mountains to shoot coyotes. Benbrook, an apprentice plumber and pipe fitter, said he was happy about the excursion because Burkey didn't go on outdoors trips often, Benbrook said.

"For the first time I was able to convince her to come," Benbrook said, shaking his head and fighting back tears.

Saturday night, Dobyns drove the trio along Rabbit Creek Road, a snowmobile track off Idaho 21, in his silver Dodge Durango. Eight miles down the road, the truck careened into a ditch. Planning only a day trip, they had no food and little water.

For hours, the three tried in vain to get the truck out of the ditch as darkness fell on the mountains and the temperature plunged, Benbrook said.

Exhausted, Benbrook and Burkey curled up in the back of the truck and went to sleep while Dobyns continued to try to dig out the truck.

On Sunday morning, Burkey decided to look for help. She returned several hours later to tell her companions she saw a road sign indicating a town may be nearby.

Benbrook said he, Burkey and Dobyns set out together toward the sign, away from Idaho 21. Burkey crunched through the 6-inch-deep snow in a pair of Benbrook's sneakers. Benbrook said he gave her the sneakers when she showed up for the trip "in dress shoes."

The road was criss-crossed with snowmobile and snowshoe tracks, but the three never saw anyone. At one point, Burkey stepped through a deep patch of snow, losing one of the sneakers.

Benbrook said he fashioned a makeshift shoe out of one of his gloves, and they trekked on until dusk. At that point, as a wet snow fell, Dobyns kept walking. Benbrook and Burkey huddled under a tree for the night.

"I can't believe she made it as far as she did," Benbrook said.

All three had warm clothing, but by Monday they were soaked and shivering, Benbrook said. Monday morning, Dobyns returned with bad news — he had walked all night and not found a town.

In the Treasure Valley, a search was under way for the trio, but since they hadn't told anyone where they were going, family assumed Dobyns and Benbrook were in their usual shooting haunts in the desert south of Kuna.

As the search was going on, the three were struggling to get back to the car, Benbrook said. Each one would regularly collapse in exhaustion before getting back up and catching up with the other two.

When Burkey collapsed, Benbrook thought she, too, would catch up. However, when he and Dobyns got to the truck, she was nowhere to be seen, Benbrook said. He said he passed out when he got to the car and didn't awaken until the next morning.

"I should have gone back for her then," Benbrook said.

Still holding out hope Burkey was alive, Benbrook headed down the snowbound road back the way the trio had driven three days before.

While he was walking in the Boise County mountains Tuesday, the search south of Kuna expanded on ground and in the air over a large area of the high-desert some 60 miles from the stranded trio.

Six hours after Benbrook started out, he reached Idaho 21 and flagged down a ride to the Boise County Sheriff's station in Idaho City.

" ‘I think my girlfriend might be dead,' " he said he told officers.

The Sheriff's Office sent a search and rescue team on snowmobiles to find Dobyns and Burkey. Dobyns was found in the Durango; Burkey was found dead in the snow.

Benbrook was questioned and brought home to Boise by deputies. Dobyns was treated and released at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise.

Benbrook said he met Burkey through a mutual friend five months ago and that the two quickly hit it off.

Burkey was several months from graduating from Skyview High School in Nampa and was working as mentor for mentally disabled people. She wanted to go into a career helping people, possibly counseling.

"(Jennifer) was full of energy and always wanted to go out and do stuff. Fun stuff," Benbrook said.

Benbrook was joined at his apartment Wednesday night by several of Burkey's friends, including Daniel Medina.

Medina said the punky hairdo Burkey sports in the photo printed by the Statesman captures her experimental spirit. He said she was always trying new things.

"She was the most alive person I've come across," Medina said.

Submitted on 02/19/2007

Submitted by: Steve Kramer
Reference: Idaho Statesman 2/15/07

Copyright © 2007 DarwinAwards.com

Graham said:
Definitely Toss: Too Common
While this is a sad story, it is nevertheless a result of bad judgement and not really stupidity. People are lost in mountains all the time. Sadly, we can add this girl, too. Thanks for sending it in though, Steve.

James said:
Definitely Toss: Not Amusing
I can add no self selection to this as well, seeing as the girl didn't hyave much outdoor experience and wasn't expecting a disaster (which, BTW, she handles as best she could). In the end, I will have to toss this as not amusing. It's tragic when something like this happens. No stupidity, just plain bad luck. Thanks for sending it in just the same, Steve, we do appreciate it! :-)

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