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Woman Who Went Missing on Birthday Trip with a Friend Heads Home: 'Priority Is to ... Hug My Family'

Loved ones and law enforcement were concerned when Robyn Bodine and Tracie Shoe didn't make their return flight to Ohio after checking out of their New Mexico hotel

Truth or Consequences Police Department (2) Robyn Renee Bodine and Tracie Shoe
Truth or Consequences Police Department (2) Robyn Renee Bodine and Tracie Shoe

An Ohio woman who went missing during a birthday trip to New Mexico says she's happy to be alive after she and her friend and travel companion were stranded in their rental car.

Robyn Renee Bodine, 46, and Tracie Shoe, 52, were found safe "in an extremely remote area" of Catron County, Ohio's Brookville Police Department reported on Thursday.

Chief of Police Luis Tavizon in Truth or Consequences, N.M., told CBS affiliate WHIO-TV that the women were found in their car, which was stuck in mud near Snow Lake in Gila National Forest.

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In a statement, Bodine said she still has "fatigue and some dehydration to overcome," but is "thankful" to be home following the harrowing ordeal, per the outlet.

"I am so overwhelmed with the magnitude of the situation, the outpouring of love, and especially the amazing actions of law-enforcement to help us," the Brookville woman said Friday.

"Right now my priority is to get home and hug my family," she added. "We are safe. We are coming home."

Truth or Consequences Police Department (2) Robyn Renee Bodine and Tracie Shoe
Truth or Consequences Police Department (2) Robyn Renee Bodine and Tracie Shoe

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Bodine's daughter Taylor Moberly previously told WHIO-TV that her mother and Shoe had traveled to the Truth or Consequences area of New Mexico to visit Riverbend Hot Springs.

The two women checked out of a hotel around 11 a.m. on Tuesday, the outlet reported. However, they never boarded their flight to Cincinnati later that day.

Police said the women were then "supposed to be heading in their rental car toward Phoenix/Mesa airport in Arizona" to fly home. But the white Toyota sedan they rented was never turned in. They women also missed their flight.

Tavizon said deputies in Catron County eventually found the women "alive and well," according to WHIO-TV.

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Cell phone service can be difficult to come by in portions of Gila National Forest, Tavizon told the outlet.

"It's probably a good 28 miles in — you have zero cell phone service," he said, per the report. "When you go out there, to go fishing or recreational type stuff, you're off the grid. No cell phone service, no nothing. So you just don't expect to contact anybody."

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