Homeless Man Becomes Unlikely Hero After Man Goes Missing for Days in Desert

There are plenty of adventurers who find the open desert alluring, and many of the most seasoned are well acquainted with the particular dangers such terrain presents.

Martin Villalobos is an avid dirt biker from Tucson, Arizona. He frequents the local trails, and it’s not unusual for him to disappear into the desert for hours at a time.

But on Feb. 2, he went out for a ride and didn’t come back. After a couple of days, he was officially reported missing, and friends, family and search teams began combing the desert, starting with his favorite trails.

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“We know he went out at 4 p.m. on Wednesday because of the security camera, but we were actually not aware he was going when it happened,” Alicia Rodriguez, who has a daughter with Villalobos, told KOLD-TV in Tucson.

“We only became aware that he had not returned from his bike ride on Friday,” she said. “As soon as I heard that, that he hadn’t come back from just a bike ride, I knew it wasn’t good.”

Meanwhile, the 32-year-old Villalobos had crashed and fallen into a washed-out hole in a trail near Ina Road and Interstate 10, fracturing his spine. The hole was about 2 feet deep and 7 feet wide, and there he stayed for four days without food or water in the freezing cold — until his knight in shining armor appeared on Saturday.