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Andrew Giddens, 36, was missing for 10 days when he was found buried up to his shoulders in mud.
16:39, Mon, Mar 2, 2026 Updated: 16:40, Mon, Mar 2, 2026
Amdrew Giddens, 36, was missing for 10 days when he was found buried up to his shoulders in mud (Image: Palatka Fire Department)
A man who had been missing since Valentine's Day was found over a week later, trapped in mud up to his shoulders, authorities have revealed. Andrew Giddens, 36, from Florida, had reportedly gone several days without food or water in freezing temperatures before he was found and rescued by officials at a Vulcan Sand Plant.
It took authorities three hours to extricate Mr Giddens after finding him on the afternoon of Thursday (February 26). He was freed from the mud by 8.30pm the same day and was taken to a nearby hospital in a critical condition. He is now in stable condition. The hunt for Mr Giddens began on February 23 after Deputy Derrick Holmes, from Florida’s Putnam County, found an abandoned vehicle he suspected belonged to the man, having recognised the car and his name from a previous encounter in 2023, when he was reported for trespassing at another Vulcan Materials site. Suspicious, the deputy requested a welfare check at his home and searched the area, but he was nowhere to be found.
Police reached out to Giddens' friends, who told them that he was depressed from a recent breakup (Image: Getty)
Police then reached out to his friends, who told them that he was depressed from a recent breakup and had not been seen since February 14, when he was last seen by his father.
After that, a missing person’s report was filed and the company Vulcan found him on its property, buried in a borrow pit.
Mr Giddens was alert and could talk, but the worker who had found him could not get to him because he was surrounded by “unstable” ground, the sheriff’s office said.
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An air ambulance flew Giddens to a hospital in a critical condition (Image: Getty)
After being summoned to the scene, specialised crews with local fire departments collaborated to free Mr Giddens, using supplies such as ladders, backboards, pallets, poles and ropes. The elaborate operation took about three hours, with rescuers needing to be careful not to become stuck in the mud themselves, the sheriff’s office added. An air ambulance later flew Giddens to a hospital in a critical condition.
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The Putnam sheriff’s office also noted it was not considering pursuing any charges against Mr Giddens for evidently having accessed the Vulcan plant without permission “due to his mental health”.
“Thank God he was found when he was,” a woman identifying herself as an aunt of Giddens, Jeannie Smith Carson, said, according to The Guardian. “One more day, and we would not have been as fortunate.”
English (US) · 