How Could a Woman Just Vanish?

Really interesting story from the Boston Globe, about a missing hiker on the Appalachian Trail. I searched before posting and found that David Paulides mentioned her disappearance briefly during an AMA. It's a sadly fascinating story.

How Could a Woman Just Vanish?

There was a chill in the air, and Gerry was wearing a bright red fleece. She was absolutely beaming — so much so, in fact, that Rust asked if she could take her picture. “It’ll make the perfect Christmas card,” she told her new friend. Gerry mugged for the camera, waved goodbye, and then turned toward the same challenging half mile of trail Rust and Clark had traversed the previous day. A few seconds later, they watched Gerry disappear into the heavy foliage.

She has never been heard from since.

a reply to: lindalinda

Thanks for posting - this was a great read. I've been a day-hiker before, in the Rocky Mountains, and I loved it. Never been to the AT, but it's a dream of mine that will remain just that, sadly.

What do you think might have happened?
Predator like a bear or cougar?

Interesting ,but without being there and having a look at the terrain and knowing every detail it's pointless to speculate ,really anything could have hapoened.

I think more people should start using gps tracking when doing something like this.

An interesting disappearance, for sure. That being said...people do just vanish; especially in vast wildernesses with poorly marked trail systems while hiking alone. Even a seemingly healthy woman of Gerrys advanced age could suffer from a surprising heart attack or stroke after a stressful day in the worlds, could become disoriented and find themselves miles upon miles off trail. A day of heavy rain might do a lot of disrupt or even wash away entirely, any scent trail she may have left; and though trained dogs are often an invaluable resource, they aren't close to 100% effective.

I guess what I'm saying is...people can just vanish.

The Appalachian Trail is vast but I have hiked some of it previously and it is entirely possible that someone could just vanish there. At least the parts I was hiking and I have no reason to believe it was any different there than at other points on the trail.

You have some day hikers and then you have the hard core hikers that traverse the whole trail. I met both while I was there. In my two days I met 2 different couples where one told me about a guy who had been holding folks at knife point on the trail and another that had heard of yet one more hiker with a gun that had shown it on more than one occasion.

There is nowhere to run out there but into the thick forest. The trail is usually about a foot wide (being generous) and any deviation from that and it was easy to see how folks can disappear fairly quickly. This isn't anywhere near the first and I highly doubt it will be the last incident of a hiker gone AWOL while on the Appalachian Trail.

Hopefully they will return or be found, but there is plenty of room for foul play where the animal kingdom helps clean up any mistakes and there's also plenty of room to just get yourself hurt to where you are unable to help yourself. It's sad, but it happens.

She may have been a victim of foul play.
Here are links to two different Appalachian Trail murders that occurred in the state of Pennsylvania.
Pennliv e
Wikipedia
Here is a link to trail deaths of all sorts: Death on the Appalachian Trail

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

Black bears in Maine are pretty timid and will normally run if they hear people. There are exceptions of course but only in certain circumstances. Cougars are not known to exist in Maine though there are plenty of "sightings". Most likely mistaken identity of a bobcat.

I grew up in the Appalachians and let me tell you, there are plenty of places to hide a body or for someone to fall in to. There are about as many abandoned mines as there are people. Folks used to dig in the sides of the hill to get coal for the family home and then just left it open when it got too dangerous to go in. Maybe an old well or sinkhole. And, not to be mysterious, there are things in those hills you don't want to meet by yourself. Or in a group for that matter. The Appalachian Trail would be an almost perfect hunting ground for a serial killer. Long stretches of trail with no one around....stalk a single hiker to one of those spots........

The main predator on that Trail Is Man.

However, lots of people disappear.

I hike the Appalachian Trail in Maryland and if you Google the Great Allegheny Passage and the C&O canal you'll be shocked at their description of paths no wider than 12 inches. The parts I hike have gravel paths 3-4 FEET wide and its even paved at some points.

My heart really goes out to this woman and her family. I hope she comes back safe.

The disappearance didn't happen too far away from one of David Paulide's Missing 411 cluster points.

There are a few things that don't bode well for this case.

1. No sign of animal attack, no sign of struggle, blood, clothes etc
2. Tracking dogs unable to follow a scent to completion
3. Large Search & rescue operation/effort yields no further clues/signs of missing person

Sounds odd but there is also a high number of missing persons in national parks for some reason who are wearing bright red and additionally have some sort of physical ailment that makes them move slower than normal.

this is an odd one for sure, and another in a very very long list of people missing without a trace from the same areas.

Putting a chip in everybody and all linking to a central system would help with finding missing people.

I'll not be taking said chip.

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

I found it odd that the story didn't mention whether bears or big cats are in the area. I'm not an outdoorsy type but I would imagine there would be some signs, like blood, bones, ripped clothing, broken branches, footprints, noise! As remote as this place was, it is also well-traveled by others.

"Inchworm" did not hike fast so she couldn't have traveled far horizontally, though she may have fallen vertically, you'd think there would be signs, slide marks, broken branches, freshly exposed soil. But nothing.

The phone call was very interesting. I wonder why they didn't seem to think it was Gerry herself calling. But it makes me think that she was abducted by a human or let's just say an intelligent life form, not an animal.

I speculate that it is related to the many other inexplicable disappearances in Paulides' book(s), which I've only read excerpts but I've heard a lot about. It reminds me of the cases of the expert mushroom collecting woman and the more recent guy who disappeared from a campsite after chasing his dog. Both were experienced and knowledgeable about the area, and extensive searches produced no trace. In the latter case, his body turned up much later in an implausible location; all I could think of was that he had been airlifted there somehow much later.

a reply to: lindalinda

I wondered if she carried a gun in case of an attack by an animal or a flare gun? It sounds like a fabulous place to hike but also a dangerous one were one inexperienced or older and alone.

This was on North Woods Law Season 3 Episode 9 which airs on Animal Planet. It shows the details of the search for her.

It's terribly sad when it happens, but people can just vanish.

The worst for those left behind would simply not ever knowing what really happened. But if people can vanish in the middle of urban areas never to be seen again, how much easier would it be to vanish in intense wilderness?

The end of the second paragraph answers this mystery.

"....precipitous cliffs dropped more than a hundred feet into caves and boulder gardens deep enough to swallow a truck. “My gosh,” Clark said to her friend, “if you were six inches off the trail here, you’d be gone. And no one would ever find you.”

a reply to: catt3

These Paulides stories are very interesting.. I did a seach on the web and can not find this 9th episode of the 3rd season. Any tips for finding this particular episode?

originally posted by: zatara
a reply to: catt3

These Paulides stories are very interesting.. I did a seach on the web and can not find this 9th episode of the 3rd season. Any tips for finding this particular episode?

Stream

Very interesting story S&F. This was on the show North Woods Law on animal planet season 3 episode 9. Took me a bit to find it. Oddly it's one of the only episodes you have to pay for on youtube. I remember them interviewing the husband a lot and he seemed less than concerned at the time and I found that a little strange. They were able to narrow down the area but came up with nothing in the end.
Very similar to the missing 411 stories.
Here is some more info from a local hiking news paper.
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