Body Found in Meramec River Believed to Be Missing 72-Year-Old Hiker

On a quiet Monday morning in Wildwood, Missouri, Carol Schulte — a 72-year-old woman who knew the trails well — set out alone and did not return. What followed was a vast communal effort to find her, drawing strangers with dogs and drones into the woods along the Meramec River, each one moved by the ancient human impulse to bring someone home. A body recovered from the river is believed to be hers, though the full truth of what happened on that trail remains, for now, beyond reach.