This saturday myself, two friends and a no o stayed at vandeventer shelter. I did not know about the murder of Janice Balza until I got home and googled haunted AT shelters and this is one o the only shelters that came up. At 1:00 am exactly i woke up in my tent, apx 5-10 seconds later i hear a stomping noise like a trail runner comin down the trail, it stops right at my tent and i yell and "growl" at the sound, no response for a minute of so, and i hear 3 more stomps like running.
Next morning i tell my buddy who was tenting about my experience and he said, "same thing happened to me at 2:30.
Anyone else have Vandeventer stories? Lol
"April 1975—Thru-hiker Janice Balza, 22, of Madison, Wisconsin, was killed by a hatchet wielded by hiker/tree surgeon Paul Bigley, 51, after breakfast at a shelter in northeast Tennessee. He died in state prison in Nashville. He killed her for her pack, a brand he coveted, testimony revealed.
Tennesse authorities siad that Bigley surrendered to the Carter County sheriff and allegedly confessed that he killed Miss Balza with a hatchet as she sat near his campfire at a shelter (Vandeventer) on the Appalachian Trail."