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  1. #161

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    Quote Originally Posted by gpburdelljr View Post
    We know where her daughter last saw her, we know where she was found. Anything else is pure speculation.
    That is true, but working through all the various possibilities will hopefully be an aid to understanding how things can go wrong. Anyway, we can't help ourselves.

    Going down hill is easiest and streams tend to make a more or less clear path. Going down hill and trying to take the path of least resistance will naturally pull you into where the stream is. Plus your going to want water before long and now you have something to follow. It might be a ways, but that stream will eventually cross a road somewhere.
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  2. #162
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    for us, if dogs tracked her, the path would be known by the searchers

    i believe the 5 to 6 inches of rain the Park had while the search was going on, hampered the dogs tracking.....

  3. #163
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    Quote Originally Posted by TNhiker View Post
    i believe the 5 to 6 inches of rain the Park had while the search was going on, hampered the dogs tracking.....
    I saw reports of dogs leading them to to observation deck. Why not down trail to where she ended up?

  4. #164

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    The only thing that still blows my mind about this is that she had to have passed people.. I'd venture to say that parking lot and Newfound Gap parking lot are the two most popular in the park. I've hiked that area so many times in my lifetime and no matter how early I start, I never have it to myself. The only time I have ever gotten turned around/lost in the park was March '17 after a snow storm and I came down from Snake Den Ridge Trail to Maddron Bald Trail where CS 29 is and it looked as if the trail went through the actual campsite. There was snow all over the ground and I couldn't see the small water crossing where the trail continues and instead I followed a fake trail through the campsite that I'm assuming campers had made. I was PANICKED. I hadn't seen a soul all day long and it was freezing outside. This part is easily understandable for me now -- the panic sets in once you realize you are turned around and then you make irrational decisions if you don't get yourself together and calm down. However, the panic for me was that I was completely alone in the woods for two days and hadn't seen anyone and had no cell service. The part of the area she was in I find extremely hard to believe there weren't multiple people passing her, unless she got off trail extremely early and was walking through the woods alone, but who knows. Hard to judge or say.. Lack of food or water or proper clothing or maps or any daily medications or freaking anything.. They all can alter our state of mind and cause things to happen. Never know and probably won't

  5. #165
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    They separated about 5:00pm.
    That means the mother should have been approaching the parking lot about 6:00pm, on a Tuesday. No one would have been coming down from the parking lot heading to the Bald, and it's quite possible that no one else was coming up from the bald at the same moment that was near her.

  6. #166

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    Quote Originally Posted by HooKooDooKu View Post
    They separated about 5:00pm.
    That means the mother should have been approaching the parking lot about 6:00pm, on a Tuesday. No one would have been coming down from the parking lot heading to the Bald, and it's quite possible that no one else was coming up from the bald at the same moment that was near her.
    No one? I will admit, I didn't know the times before I posted my last comment, but still.. There's a way smaller chance knowing it was mid-week and late in the afternoon, but my mind still goes to thinking there had to be SOMEONE around. Apparently not though

  7. #167

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    Quote Originally Posted by centerfieldr162 View Post
    No one? I will admit, I didn't know the times before I posted my last comment, but still.. There's a way smaller chance knowing it was mid-week and late in the afternoon, but my mind still goes to thinking there had to be SOMEONE around. Apparently not though
    On a sunny Saturday I would bet the farm on it, but a rainy Tuesday at 5pm I could understand not seeing anyone.
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  8. #168

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    Quote Originally Posted by Gambit McCrae View Post
    On a sunny Saturday I would bet the farm on it, but a rainy Tuesday at 5pm I could understand not seeing anyone.
    Yeah, you're right. Especially rainy. Ok, this is now a little more understandable. I'm sure there were still cars in the parking lot but probably not tourists on the trail

  9. #169
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    With all the expensive high tech equipment employed on the search I would like to know how they ultimately found her.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gambit McCrae View Post
    On a sunny Saturday I would bet the farm on it, but a rainy Tuesday at 5pm I could understand not seeing anyone.
    i'm not terribly shocked no one saw her, but at the same time, i hiked over clingman's dome on a week day in may. it rained, violently at times, all day. hail as well. it started to let up at around 3 or 4pm. i got to the dome around 6, it was misting out and the mountain was entirely clouded over.

    there were, much to my amazement, still plenty of people up there walking around, (including the wayward aspiring photographer i spoke of above) and i definitely heard tons of motorcycles on the road.

    i would say it might be likely a few people saw her but they just never heard any of the news reports about it. i mean really, if none of us read this website and we lived in a far away state and happened to be there that afternoon and were back home now, would we have heard about this? at any given time i think the majority of the crowd up there aren't serious hiking people who read websites like this one.

  11. #171
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    Quote Originally Posted by scrabbler View Post
    I saw reports of dogs leading them to to observation deck. Why not down trail to where she ended up?



    were the dogs tracking her scent when you say they lead them to the observation deck or were they just meandering along?

  12. #172
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    Quote Originally Posted by BlackCloud View Post
    With all the expensive high tech equipment employed on the search I would like to know how they ultimately found her.


    more than likely, found her by walking the drainage.......


    guessing the drone couldnt see her due to foliage and all that..........and probably heat seeking thing (if they used one) didnt pick her up because maybe she was already dead at that point.......

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    i would say it might be likely a few people saw her but they just never heard any of the news reports about it. i mean really, if none of us read this website and we lived in a far away state and happened to be there that afternoon and were back home now, would we have heard about this? at any given time i think the majority of the crowd up there aren't serious hiking people who read websites like this one.


    that is correct....

    or they dont watch the news.......

    most people really dont watch the news (and i realize what business i am in) and most dont watch on vacation......


    after the search started though (i think maybe the next day or day after that, but im not exactly sure) they started putting up flyers asking if anyone had seen her.....also had emailed backcountry reservation permit holders as well.....

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    Quote Originally Posted by TNhiker View Post
    that is correct....

    or they dont watch the news.......

    most people really dont watch the news (and i realize what business i am in) and most dont watch on vacation......


    after the search started though (i think maybe the next day or day after that, but im not exactly sure) they started putting up flyers asking if anyone had seen her.....also had emailed backcountry reservation permit holders as well.....
    so no one with a backcountry permit (assuming all who were contacted read and considered the email) that doesnt surprise me.

    as for the flyers, how many tourists go to clingmans dome one day and return again the next day or two days later? if they really blanketed the area, put flyers up all over gatlinburg for instance, and did it the day after she disappeared, then yeah that maybe makes it a little more strange. but even 2 days later i would think most of the touristy type visitors to the park had moved on.

    and for sure the weather and time of day means that if anyone did see her, it wasnt a whole bunch of people.

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    as for the flyers, how many tourists go to clingmans dome one day and return again the next day or two days later? if they really blanketed the area, put flyers up all over gatlinburg for instance, and did it the day after she disappeared, then yeah that maybe makes it a little more strange. but even 2 days later i would think most of the touristy type visitors to the park had moved on.


    from what i saw (on video and not being down there)----they put flyers in a bunch of trailhead areas and other places like NF gap and sugarland visitors center.....

  16. #176
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    as for the flyers, how many tourists go to clingmans dome one day and return again the next day or two days later?


    depends upon the tourist------and the weather...

    i know in my first visit to the park, we went up to the tower a few times.............once a night..........once during the day..........different views at different times.....

    and if it was raining up there----some people might return to try to get a clear view from up there....

  17. #177
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    I’m wondering if she just took the wrong turn at the Forney intersection, panicked when it got dark and went off the trail to the right figuring she had walked far enough to have passed the dome and the road should be there somewhere if she kept going through the woods. Maybe she was tired and saw Forney on the sign and followed it without checking it was the sign to the wrong trail.

    If if she had reached the AT that would have given her hope that she’d run into a shelter, people or a road assuming she could see the white blazes.

    While streams usually lead to roads so do trails which also cross streams and have more people walking them.

  18. #178
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    Quote Originally Posted by rmitchell View Post
    So tragic. My deepest symphonies to her friends and family...
    Quote Originally Posted by tdoczi View Post
    perhaps something Wagnerian?
    Given my criticism on another thread, I just wanted you to know much I found this to be very, and appropriately (IMO), humorous. Its flippant, but not directed at the subject and so, helps bring some levity to the discussion - which I think is needed. (and that's partially my fault)
    "I wonder if anyone else has an ear so tuned and sharpened as I have, to detect the music, not of the spheres, but of earth, subtleties of major and minor chord that the wind strikes upon the tree branches. Have you ever heard the earth breathe... ?"
    - Kate Chopin

  19. #179
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    Has there been an update on this? Has the autopsy report been released and a cause of death determined?

  20. #180
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    Quote Originally Posted by John B View Post
    Has there been an update on this? Has the autopsy report been released and a cause of death determined?
    I doubt we'll ever get anymore information...

    First of all, from what I've heard, it can take months for an autopsy report to be made public.
    Second, it's already been reported by the 1st responders that found the body that foul play was not suspected.

    Since nothing else unusual was reported (such as animal savaging that occurred with the missing ginseng poacher), she likely died of exposure. Of course the exact cause of death might include details such as a disabling fall. But unless something spectacular is found (say evidence of alien abduction?), it won't be considered news worthy and we'll likely never hear any additional details even when they become available.

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