
An Austin, Texas woman says a walk on the Lady Bird Lake Trail turned frightening after she and a friend were followed for miles by a man.
In a TikTok video with more than 254,000 views, Michaela Diehl (@michdiehll) described how what was meant to be a 10-mile walk quickly became dangerous.
Diehl said she and her friend paused near Noble Joe Coffee about two miles in to decide which path to take when a man appeared behind them and began giving directions. Though unsettled by his sudden presence, they told him they planned to complete the full loop, a detail Diehl later called a mistake.
The man then walked ahead but continued trailing them. For at least three miles, Diehl said, he mirrored their pace: stopping when they stopped, speeding up when they did, and at times getting so close that they had to move away or try to escape him.
The women tried running briefly to create distance, but he reappeared. Then they tried to run to create distance again. He appeared. Diehl said they avoided confronting him out of fear that the situation could escalate. However, no matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t de-escalate the situation. A majority of the walk, then, was in “silence” out of fear.
The Austin women try to escape the man
When they reached the trailhead, the man lingered nearby, attempting to do pullups with some equipment as he watched them to the side. Diehl said she mentioned meeting her father for lunch in an effort to deter him, and the women were eventually able to return to their car safely.
“You cannot trust anybody’s intentions,” Diehl said in the video. “Just be safe and be aware of the trails. Do not tell anyone anything.”
Earlier, Diehl posted a separate clip taken during the walk that shows the man visible in several frames. Though she joked that Austin City Limits had trained them to endure the chase, she emphasized that the experience felt incredibly dangerous.
People were outraged on her behalf
Social media users were in an uproar after seeing Diehl’s post, with many commenting about their own experiences on the Lady Bird Lake Trail. Others offered her advice on how she should have handled the situation.
“Be vocal,” one person wrote. “Say, ‘Why are you following us? You are making us uncomfortable. Please get away from us.’ I am from Austin and have been here for 18 years. You have to be loud and obnoxious so people can hear you. Do not let those men scare you like that. Scare them.”
Another commenter suggested self-defense. “A visible pocketknife or something even heavier and deadlier is an exceptional deterrent. Plenty of bodies have been found in Lady Bird Lake, and Texas allows you to carry things that would deter and protect you,” the person wrote.
Others simply empathized with Diehl, emphasizing the fear of the situation.
“‘Why didn’t you just…’ bro, [are] you all serious? This is such a scary situation to be in. If you have advice to give, there is a right and wrong way to give it. Stop trying to put the blame on victims, my gosh,” one person said.
@michdiehll if you walk the trail in Austin or walk anywhere pls stay aware — storytime from my walk on Saturday 9/6 #lifeupdate #storytime #safety #austintx #atx ♬ original sound – Michaela Diehl
The Mary Sue has reached out to Diehl by email for more information.
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