How Could a Woman Just Vanish?

a reply to: lindalinda

Bright red.......sounds like something common to some cases! Bright clothing is a common factor in a lot of the Missing 411 cases. No traces found is familiar as well. The call and texts are strange as well. Seems she was probably alive for at least a time. The smell some detected is troublesome. I remember reading something in one of the books about remains under tree roots, I think. That would certainly account for smell, but no sight. I feel for her family. Not knowing what happened has to be horrible.

Interesting case, here is a video mentioning a possible cause for her disappearance. It's possible that she may have slipped trying to cross a flooded river, according to these people this would have been the most challenging part of the trail after her last call and before she was supposed to meet with her husband.

Mr. Paulides brought this case up on ATS:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Fits the profile extremely well, and is near one of the "clusters".

Paulides is on to something, and these types of situations are extremely odd. There is a typical set of circumstances where SAR recovers either the missing person, or their remains. For a person to straight-up vanish, no evidence...very atypical.

Firstly, where is Mrs. Largay's equipment? Synthetic materials can last a long time, even when exposed to the elements.

Bloodhounds couldn't turn anything up? Decomposing remains are unmistakable. I'm not suggesting it's impossible for them NOT to pick up the trail, but either Mrs. Largay went missing during the rainstorm, or at the time of the search her remains were not in a state of decomposition.

Also, bear in mind that the AT is not the Yukon Territory or the Florida Everglades. There is a ridiculous amount of ingress/egress along the trail. If her remains were anywhere near the trail, the amount of traffic through the area would have turned up something. Not to mention the fact that SAR personnel had scoured the area. Furthermore, Mrs. Largay, if my understanding is correct, was a Thru-Hiker. Needless to say, this wasn't her first rodeo. At the time of her disappearance, Mrs. Largay had already traversed over 1,000 miles on foot.

The cellphone is another interesting piece of the puzzle. Barring any extenuating circumstances, by all intents and purposes, had an emergency injury occurred, she should have had the capability of calling. This is dependent upon her having service in the area, but it appears that she was conservative with her phone usage, which leads me to believe that a dead battery may not have been the problem. The James McGrogan disappearance was interesting, because, despite being missing, Mr. McGrogan's remains were found, along with a functioning cellphone, which also still had a charge.

Bear in mind this problem regarding an abduction scenario: Unless Mrs. Largay was near a trailhead with easy vehicular access, absconding with a grown woman from rugged terrain is not an easy feat.

I don't know if we will ever get any answers on some of these missing persons cases.

If you decide to venture into the outdoors, avoid being alone and carry some means of protecting yourself.

a reply to: Atsbhct

So, I think this case rests solely on that phone call. That was too strange to dismiss. Having hiked part of the AT, and having lived in New England for 25 years, I KNOW that those wardens are very, very good. If her body was anywhere close to that trail, they would have found her. She's not on the trail. Impressions?

1) Why did someone call that hotel to say Gerry would be late and to tell her husband? That person knows something. If they told Gerry's husband she'd be late, then he wouldn't worry and it would give the perps more time to do whatever they were doing.

2) The dogs picked up her scent. They (the searchers) all smelled decay somewhere near the logging trail, but couldn't find where it was coming from. Sure, it could have been an animal, but you can't dismiss that important fact when you're looking for someone who is missing.

3) I hope the other lone and quiet woman hiker was questioned. And the husband, too. Everyone is a suspect at first.

4) Totally smell a rat here. The phone call scenario to the hotel is discomforting.

a reply to: AllenBishop

Great response Allen. But doesn't that mysterious phone call freak you out a little?

I used to want to hike the entire trail, but that horse has left the barn. I've hiked parts of it, though, and for almost an entire day, saw no one. It can be a pretty isolating experience.

I wouldn't think of doing it these days without carrying some serious protection. The world is not a nice place.

a reply to: Skid Mark

The bears in New England aren't grizzlies, they are brown bears. They usually run away from people.

Very, very rare that anyone has been attacked by a brown bear. Ever.

Lived in New England my whole adult life and am a hiker.

a reply to: galadofwarthethird

There are no poisonous snakes in New England. There are no ferocious bears.

This wasn't a wildlife incident, trust me.

I've hiked parts of the AT in New England. Bears and snakes are not a concern.

Great thread, highly disturbing subject. The National Parks Service has an *idea* what's going on, however, like most things the governments of the world don't understand and/or can't stop, they cover it up and try to hide it. The National Parks in the U.S. bring in between 750 million to 800 million annually, they certainly don't want to scare anyone away from camping or hiking admitting they can't control something or someone from abducting and/or killing people.

This is another very disturbing incident that happened a year ago that is very similar, in fact, most of these types of cases are most always strangely similar in nature...

a reply to: MRuss

It absolutely does.

Something doesn't add up. I wouldn't put it past some creep like Gary Michael Hilton to be preying on folks. There certainly is a precedent. The lack of a motive for the phone call is concerning. Maybe I give creeps too much credit, but I would surmise that it would be more advantageous to leave no trace. The average tweaker, trying to rob someone for a quick fix, usually isn't a criminal mastermind. Which leads right back to how a criminal dumb enough to deliberately leave evidence(the phone call), would be skillful enough to pull off a perfect murder. If it was a serial killer, I'd imagine there would be some prior activity/MO with which to develop a profile. For some reason, my gut isn't giving me the "criminal" motive to this situation.

You also brought up an excellent point about the absence of nasty critters in the Northeast. If she were in Georgia, or the Smokies, I could see animal predation being a more likely suspect than in Maine.

For me, I am hung up on the lack of any and all trace evidence. No equipment. No remains. Nothing.

a reply to: MRuss
OK but obviously something dangerous was there. So what you all saying somebody happened to her? Seeing about the whole no traces found thing, dont have much to go on. Its anybodies guess then, she could have run into some trouble or wildlife which was not friendly, or she could have ran into the more human not friendlies, or she could have got abducted by grays or even taken by Bigfoot or insert your theory here [........] Just saying, without nothing to go on, its kind of speculation.

And the chances that we will never know are pretty dam high, and will likely be forgotten like everything else. If like everybody says you got people missing in that area or those type of areas, generally looking at what all those people who went missing have in common will help more then knowing the areas of were they went missing. If there is a trend or pattern it will likely be in the type of people, even if they were waylaid upon by who knows who, the victims still would have common traits. Basically if she got killed by somebody and they buried the body, well whoever did it is likely to go more for certain types of people, generally those who would not be that much of a problem to take on. ect ect.

Last night I watched a long youtube video (sorry, didn't save the link) where Paulides discussed the common denominators in many cases.

Wearing bright red, OK that attracts attention. Being young or disabled, that also is easy to spot. Even runners can be explained as perhaps being fit they are more likely to be out for a hike, so statistically they are more represented than nonrunners.

But why have so many of the disappeared been doctors? Gerry herself was a retired nurse. It's not like they're out there in lab coat and stethoscope. It seems these are not always crimes of opportunity but deterministically decided. But why doctors?

Somebody must know what's going on. What I found interesting is that a while back I heard that drones are banned in national parks. Why? Drones would be a great tool for not only finding people but perhaps observing the abductions themselves, if that is what's happening.

I have a weird theory that the reason there are no tracks or scent (aside from the bad weather) is that they are not dragged but lifted out, such as by a large bird of prey. I imagine such a bird could carry a small child. As for the adults, it does seem unlikely, I know. But it would help to explain why they are often found on higher ground and farther than a person can walk. I've never heard any mention of feathers or other telltale signs so maybe it's not an actual bird, but it could be something coming from above. And that would explain why drones are not allowed.

Have there been any ufo sighting in conjunction with disappearances, I wonder?

Have any psychics been asked to help in any of these cases? I know there are a lot of frauds, but there are legitimate ones out there somewhere. I would love to know what they would come up with.