Found Deceased ME - Gerry Largay, 66, Appalachian Trail, 21 July 2013

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Wow, I can't believe there has been no progress in locating Gerry after all this time. A real tragedy.
 
http://www.wcsh6.com/story/news/local/2014/09/24/geraldine-largay-missing-reward/16179663/

Her family raised the reward to $25,000, up from $15,000. This comes after recent search efforts earlier in September. Maine Game Wardens searched near the Oberton Stream and west of Mount Abram Trail, which didn't have documented ground search efforts. There were also several search efforts over the summer, despite no new information or leads.

The reward will be for anyone who can provide information leads to locating Largay.
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A rerun of North Woods Law episode featuring the search of Gerry Largay is being shown on Animal Planet channel right now.
 
Feature article about Gerry's disappearance:

http://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine...just-vanish/CkjirwQF7RGnw4VkAl6TWM/story.html

Near the top of Poplar Ridge, they stopped and took in the topography. Thick vegetation walled the trail on either side. Beyond it, 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”...

Other hikers would spend that Sunday night at the Poplar Ridge shelter — a northbound female hiker who kept to herself, two young men heading south — but the three women hit it off. They spent their evening together, cooking their dinners over compact backpacking stoves. Rust and Clark were instantly enamored. Here was a woman who had been an Air Force nurse, who had banded seabirds on a Pacific atoll, and taken her family on trips to Costa Rica and Spain. “She was just full of confidence and joy — a real delight to talk to,” recalls Rust...

The rain began before dawn on Tuesday, July 23, and didn’t let up until afternoon. Gerry was due at the trailhead near Route 27 by that evening... When nightfall arrived and Gerry still hadn’t, George decided to sleep in his SUV. He figured Inchworm had been held up by the rain, but he wanted to be there, just in case she popped out of the woods.
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Thanks. That was a very informative article.
I was drawn to the part about the phone call.
Didn't the searchers dismiss the trail past the Spaulding lean-to because Gerry had not signed in there? What if she did reach there, but because of some unknown reason did not sign the log-in book? It sounds like Gerry was on track to meet her husband but would be running late, maybe due to the weather, and asked someone to make the call for her because her phone would not get a signal or something. It says that they were unable to find the possible caller. Did they do a phone call history request on the motel phone for that date to see what numbers may have called in?

The Stratton Motel serves as a hostel and clearinghouse for thru-hikers. Its owner, Sue Critchlow, regularly pitches in as their shuttle and answering service. She recalls an unidentified person calling on Wednesday and claiming to have spent Tuesday night with Inchworm at the Spaulding Lean-to, the shelter Gerry had been planning to use on Monday night. Her husband is waiting for her at Route 27, said the caller. Tell him she’s going to be late. Critchlow says the voice sounded like a woman’s, but that’s all she remembers.
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And, then

In addition, no one has come forward and admitted making the mystery call to Critchlow, despite widely publicized pleas. Wardens eventually began to discount it, saying it was a simple case of someone getting their information confused. They no longer believed Gerry spent either Monday or Tuesday night at the Spaulding Lean-to. Instead, wardens began focusing on the difficult terrain back near Poplar Ridge.
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Just saw this on North Woods Law rerun this weekend. Interesting case. I have been to Maine many times and hiked on some of the trails. I have also hiked several sections of the AT over the years. I can tell you there are sections, that even when well marked can be confusing. While you are supposed to be able to see from one white blaze to another, sometimes the marked trees fall or leaves obscure the blaze. It is easy to accidentally take the wrong fork in the trail in some spots, or even to take a fire break thinking it is the trail because you are walking and thinking, not paying attention to the markers. For some reason this case makes me think of Kari Swenson.
 
I find it so unusual that no articles of clothing or remnants of her backpack have been recovered....this must be an abduction, too many people hike this trail for nothing to show up(and it's been well publicized).
 
TobyWong* said:
There is something to be said imo that this is the first case in Maine of a missing hiker to go unsolved.

I'm still envious of her doing this alone. It has to be gorgeous anytime of day in those mountains. After seeing the North Woods episode, some of those drop offs high up looked deadly. I still think if she slipped there she would've been found by now though. Those searchers really canvassed the areas she would've been in. Imo
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While searching around I happened to see this old Maine MP case from the early 1980s, Jesse O. Hoover, I don't think she's been mentioned on the thread:
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/h/hoover_jesse.html
http://www.maine.gov/tools/whatsnew/index.php?topic=state_police_unsolved&id=11307&v=Article-missing

Coincidental similarities to Gerry are age and gender, though Jesse was not an experienced hiker, had health problems and was taller and heavier (their names are very close too, but I don't think we're dealing with someone who deliberately targets similarly-named women 30 years apart). Jesse may not have gotten on the trail at all I suppose, could have been abducted near the park headquarters, or her body may have been found but left unidentified. I could search through unidentifieds found in AT states after May 1983 maybe.
 
biscuits222 said:
While searching around I happened to see this old Maine MP case from the early 1980s, Jesse O. Hoover, I don't think she's been mentioned on the thread:
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/h/hoover_jesse.html
http://www.maine.gov/tools/whatsnew/index.php?topic=state_police_unsolved&id=11307&v=Article-missing

Coincidental similarities to Gerry are age and gender, though Jesse was not an experienced hiker, had health problems and was taller and heavier (their names are very close too, but I don't think we're dealing with someone who deliberately targets similarly-named women 30 years apart). Jesse may not have gotten on the trail at all I suppose, could have been abducted near the park headquarters, or her body may have been found but left unidentified. I could search through unidentifieds found in AT states after May 1983 maybe.
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Very little info on Jesse O Hoover..
As far as GL missing, I find it so hard to believe that an experienced, level headed hiker like herself would wonder so far off the AT that nothing has been recovered from her. Quite a number of hikers take to that portion of the trail every year yet nothing.
 
Re Jesse Hoover, I searched through unidentified remains found after May 1983 and found a case from 1984 that maybe fits in terms of hair style, age and context of location: https://identifyus.org/en/cases/9736 (Findthemissing's JH page: https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/6955/0 )

IdentifyUs says the UP's remains were found by a hiker in a wooded area near Central Valley and Route 6, New York. Central Valley seems to be very close to the AT, just a few miles north-west of Bear Mountain Bridge over the Hudson where the AT goes across. Central Valley is a tiny town and doesn't appear on many AT maps that I looked at, but I found this one that shows the AT in red and Central Valley and Route 6, lower-middle of the map:

http://www.cnyhiking.com/ATinNY-Map01.jpg

I emailed this idea to Lori Bruski at NamUs on the off-chance it might be useful. Not all the details fit plus there is no DNA for JH, so I think there's only a 10% chance of it being a match.
 
biscuits222 said:
Re Jesse Hoover, I searched through unidentified remains found after May 1983 and found a case from 1984 that maybe fits in terms of hair style, age and context of location: https://identifyus.org/en/cases/9736 (Findthemissing's JH page: https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/6955/0 )

IdentifyUs says the UP's remains were found by a hiker in a wooded area near Central Valley and Route 6, New York. Central Valley seems to be very close to the AT, just a few miles north-west of Bear Mountain Bridge over the Hudson where the AT goes across. Central Valley is a tiny town and doesn't appear on many AT maps that I looked at, but I found this one that shows the AT in red and Central Valley and Route 6, lower-middle of the map:

http://www.cnyhiking.com/ATinNY-Map01.jpg

I emailed this idea to Lori Bruski at NamUs on the off-chance it might be useful. Not all the details fit plus there is no DNA for JH, so I think there's only a 10% chance of it being a match.
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I doubt very much that body was Ms.Hoover as that is quite a hike from Baxter State Park ,where she was last sighted. Somebody would have noticed a 5'10" woman at some point on the trail and keep in mind she was ill equipped for the hike to start with. Nice sleuthing anyway.. I still find it almost inconceivable that a person could disappear on that trail unintentionally and not be located.
 
Topcat said:
I doubt very much that body was Ms.Hoover as that is quite a hike from Baxter State Park ,where she was last sighted. Somebody would have noticed a 5'10" woman at some point on the trail and keep in mind she was ill equipped for the hike to start with. Nice sleuthing anyway.. I still find it almost inconceivable that a person could disappear on that trail unintentionally and not be located.
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A lot of the information in profiles turns out to be wrong so I'm not sure if heights or other details can ever be trusted, plus Jesse Hoover was reported missing months after she disappeared so it's difficult to know how much communication there would have been about her being missing. Another woman was mistaken for Gerry Largay early on in the search for her so it's easy to see how people can be mixed up. Maybe there's a serial killer targeting Maine folk on or near trail or maybe Jesse Hoover turned up alive and it wasn't reported.
 
In my research of the disappearance of GL ,Maine SP and the Rangers have almost spotless record in recovering lost hikers on the AT. This is what makes GL case so unusual that till today with all the people who use that trail ,nothing has been recovered that was GL's. My thought is unless she had a medical issue and wandered way off the trail (she was a nurse who was in excellent health and a seasoned hiker) then a crime was committed that lead to her not being found.
 
I always seem to have trouble finding this file because it is in the Missing Information & Support thread instead of the Missing Forum Discussion thread. I usually have to go to a web search to find it.
What determines which cases get moved over for more discussion?
 
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