How Could a Woman Just Vanish?

a reply to: lindalinda

That reminds me of The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King, except she was found. The girl in the story got lost while on the Appalachian trail in Maine. It also reminds me of the stories David Paulides was telling on Coast to Coast AM that were from his Missing 411 books.
I think she may have run into a bear.

she might have fallen into a hole, lots of caves in the Apps

a reply to: Shiloh7

Only speculation of course but I'd guess she didn't carry a gun, tho maybe a knife, for utility as much as self-defense. Thing is, whatever it is would have to be immediately handy in case she was ambushed.

I just watched the North Woods Law show. Funny how everything seems to be on reality tv these days; I had never even heard of this show. It seems they did a thorough search of that steep area.

I've been wondering whether they ever tried searching with an infrared camera to pick up heat, especially from a helicopter. They did a canine search with both general 'sniffing' dogs and cadaver sniffers, but I wonder if bloodhounds might have been more effective. Apparently they are able to track people even if they were riding in a car.

It's a mystery that defies explanation.

I actually watched this episode of Natural law Maine about this lady and e manhunt for her. They found a drop of blood, that's all. They also brought in a special tech unit to trace her phone pings and try to boost a tower signal in case she had no reception. It was crazy seeing it all and thinking about david Paulides and his books. It reminded me of the fireman in California that ran off bare foot middle of the night only to be found dead off a side of a mountain miles away. In the show they had huge search teams, choppers, the whole nine yards and found zilch. It's also very strange that she didn't bring her gps this time in her long journey. Google the episode or the name with it and it pops up.

a reply to: lindalinda

Lol beat me to it.

a reply to: lindalinda
Apparently there are hundreds of people who go missing while hiking. From this site it seems most just overestimate there physical prowess or knowledge of wilderness areas. A search and rescue guy is even quoted to say that he goes on "85 to 100 search-and-rescue missions every year" And it says the numbers go up every year, that whole article was from 2007. And who knows how many are found, and how many just end up vanishing.
Link

Though I think the article is right people just overestimate themselfs and most definitely the area or large wooded areas, they dont realize that really all it would take is one night out in the cold without food and water and the commodities they are used to and they would likely get sick and die of pneumonia, much less all the other dangers out there, over generations of. Well lets just say were more like house bred cats who stare out the windows, then our ancestors which lived in a more rugged environment, and even they know not to go to far from other people.

Don't know about that particular area, but here in the North West, its a lot of land and forest out there, so much so that if you had a team of hundreds of people scouring the area for months even with the latest gear and equipment, they would still only cover a fraction of it. So ya! Take them GPS tracking devices with you when your out in the woods if you have them, and maybe go out in a group, that alone should improve your chances if anything happens.

a reply to: lindalinda

While recapping on some of Paulides stuff, am seeing in his concern for these dissapearences. In that these "taken" people dissapear as almost being planned out as opposed to just vanishing from natural causes-falling, lost, etc.. Doubt if any of the park service employees, other local enforcement in the area has been questioned as people in the area were.

This actually reminds me of an article that describes similar disappearances in national parks.

www.veteranstoday.com...

O' course, there are many stories in the Appalachians about people vanishing in open fields and the like.

a reply to: lindalinda

At first I was thinking she probably became lost and disorientated, or perhaps had an injury or accident.
But as I read on and realized that she was such an experienced hiker, and the phone signal and so on, that just doesn't make any sense.

There was seemingly no reason for her to leave the trail, this is a marked out route that plenty of people walk along.

Going for a leak is not a sufficient explanation, you don't walk a mile from the track just to do that. You go maybe ten or fifteen feet at the most. And even if she had, she would have left her backpack in sight.

If it was raining there's a chance she could have sought shelter somewhere, but a woman with her experience would probably have the gear for that and it probably wouldn't slow her down unless it was severe.

An animal attack is also not plausible. Animals do not clean up after themselves and hide all evidence. Someone would have found clothing or belongings in the search if this were the case.

In my opinion, based on the information, it's most plausible that someone removed her from that track. They should be looking for a murderer. I think they'll either find her remains in the next couple of years, probably less than 100 feet from the track, or they'll arrest someone for another murder and discover he was responsible, leading them to discovering her.

Whatever happens, it's very sad indeed. She seemed like a very nice person, happy and adventurous, down to Earth and kind. She obviously had an impact on those she only just met, and that says something about a persons character. I hope they find her.

originally posted by: galadofwarthethird
a reply to: lindalinda
Apparently there are hundreds of people who go missing while hiking.

There are, and I was willing to put this down to misadventure when I started reading. I assumed straight away that she might have simply fallen. But, the AT is not really a dangerous place to go hiking as far as I can see. There are thousands who travel it every year, without incident. There are safety points all along it, rest stops, and passing hikers regularly too. I fully agree that there are a lot of people out there who overestimate themselves, thinking they're Bear Grylls, but this was not some remote route through seldom-walked terrain.

She was experienced, this trail wasn't that remote, with others passing by regularly. She had no reason to leave the trail, nothing has been found and I do believe those in the search would have probably found something by now if she had simply walked off the path or had an accident.

a reply to: Rocker2013

In my opinion, based on the information, it's most plausible that someone removed her from that track. They should be looking for a murderer.

Again, the most intriguing puzzle piece is the phone call, which was not on the tv show (probably not discovered until later). I would love to know more about that, and whether it came from a cell tower. In fact I suppose they could trace all the phones that pinged all the cell towers in that vicinity and track down those phones' owners and alibis.

don't think that the women went over into a cliff or cavern. if that were the case the dog would have tracked her scent to the edge of the cliff or ledge where she fell off. and again it couldn't have been any kind of animal because of the lack of ANY sign of that. when someone is attacked by an animal it's very obvious what has transpired. especially when trackers and tracking animals are being used.

if her body turns up somewhere search and rescue already looked or somewhere she couldn't have possibly gotten to by herself then either of those will be a pretty tell tale sign that this disappearance fits into the missing 411 criteria. guess we'll have to wait and see if anything else comes to light. otherwise it will remain in the mystery pile.

If she does ever get found it will be interesting to see if she has her shoes. After listening to Paulides Sunday night on c2cam that has to be one of the creepiest features of many of these stories.

If you haven't heard his latest you should check it out. Some new stories that will wow you.

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

you have to be a member of the coast 2 coast site to listen to that i'm assuming? or is that only the case with the archives? i would love to give a listen without having to pay the monthly member fees.

a reply to: CallmeRaskolnikov

It should get put up on Youtube at some point shortly. Not as if I have anything to do with that but I have caught episodes there a few days after broadcast.

On a Church retreat in the Catoctin Mountains we were at a retreat i had been to before with the boy scouts so i knew the trails. 4 or 5 of us went out after dinner for a hike. Comming back one of the girls for some reason dropped back and when she tried to catch up she came to where the trail branched off to three trails. She took the wrong trail. We got back and realised we were missing one. We sat and waited for her to emerge out of the forest. She did not. We finally called the state police they said there was nothing they could do till the morning, it was already dark. We went to the ony nearby houses one was unoccupied the other when we knocked we heard a mans voice say come on in. We followed the voice to the bathroom where there was a man taking a bath with a 357 magnum in reah on the toilet seat. He said he had not seen our missing hiker. So we waited till morning and at first light the state police arrived. Around about 10am they brought our missing hiker back. She had been found by a father and son who feed her and played songs for her all night. One played the mandolin the other guitar. They had not a phone. The one walked out to the main rd where on the way they met up with the Maryland state police.

a reply to: whyamIhere
Wonder how much insurance the husband had on Gerry? What if he met her at the road point she was hours late and he wasn't to happy. He bumps her off drives her down the road a few miles and disposes of her. I8 months later hes like Gerry who? Oh i''ve moved on.

a reply to: Rocker2013
You never know. She should not have went alone. For all anybody knows it could have been something as simple as a she got bit by a poisonous snake which crept up, got disoriented in the panic and went off the beaten path and...Well I would think the wild animals in the area would take care of the rest. Or anybody's ques is as good as any since I believe they found no body no nothing. Basically its more disturbing that they did not find anything, then if they would find something. But then again some of those national parks are a pretty huge area to cover.

Like others have said, some weird disappearances while hiking or camping. In fact looking at that link again, the one guy I quoted saying he goes on 85 to 100 search-and-rescue missions every year. Well he was just one of guy from the local volunteer organization in his area I think. Further on in that link, you get this a more broader perspective, so the numbers are higher then that, if most of those 3,000 search and rescue missions are missing people and over a broader area, 90 teams of who know how many people, over 20 states if that link is correct. May be sizable group even if those 90 teams were 5 people each, but its likely to be much more people then that per team plus volunteers or they would never get anything done.

For example, the Oregon-based Mountain Rescue Association, which has member teams in about 20 states, has seen a rise in the number of hikers in need of rescue, says MRA president Fran Sharp. The group's 90 search-and-rescue teams complete about 3,000 missions each year.