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

[Orgona]

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?

You have on the top of the site the banner: Websleuths. Just under that you have a blue line with texts, beginning with : New Posts, Private Messages blablabla, the penultimate is Quick Links. If you click on the Quick Links a drop down menu will appear, you have to choose/click on: subscribed threads. A list of threads will appear. If you've posted in a thread, that thread will be on that list. That way you can always find your way back there. I don't know how many threads can stay on the subscribed threads list, as I always delete the ones I'm not visiting anymore.
One way of subscribing to a thread is by posting in them. The other way is that on the top of the thread's first post of every page you have to find the drop down menu: thread tools. You click on it, and from the drop down menu you choose : subscribe to this thread. IHTH

 

[DanceCard]

This case bothers me a lot. Bumping for Gerry.

 

[Topcat]

I agree that this is a troubling case because of the amount of hikers through the area yet not one iota of evidence of her ever being in the area has shown up in all the time she has been gone....

 

[KateB]

:bump:

Bumping for the move to the Discussion forum. Hopefully, Gerry's thread will be easier to find now.

 

[Topcat]

maybe this will be the year the Largay family can have closure......

 

[watcher9]

I am so glad to see this case moved to the discussion forum.

 

[watcher9]

Here is a June 9, 2014 article on the May 28, 2014 search along with a recap of Gerry's disappearance. The last confirmed sighting of "Inchworm," as she was better known on the Appalachian Trail, was July 22, 2013.

http://appalachiantrail.com/20140609/gerry-inchworm-largay-search/

 

[holmesleuthing]

I was thinking about her recently. Glad to find this thread. Sure hope she is found.

 

[Topcat]

I have followed this story for awhile ,reading the newspaper articles and the written opinions of those who have hiked the AT. I keep coming back to the fact NOTHING has been found belonging to Gerry Largay on this trail. This leads to one conclusion that I can see and that is she has had gone completely off the trail either because she was confused/disoriented or forced off by someone. From what I have gathered she was a pretty sharp lady ,in excellent health both mentally and physically. She had the knowledge to correct herself if she somehow wandered off track ,again if she was off track and was somehow injured she had to be way off track in an area that no one has covered. The AT is pretty well marked and the Rangers are top notch in that area, so a person with a red top should be easy to spot either by land or air (when the foliage is less dense) yet nothing not a trace ....

 

[terracotta]

I too come back to this story as I'm an avid hiker and have hiked many mountains in NH and ME.

I believe it was raining hard and she pushed on to get to the meeting place...so it would be very easy to lose track of the trail and fall in a ditch, trip over trees, slip by the water. As we know many people are not found right away and then years later someone happens upon them.

There could also be animal activity that could have taken her away from that area and dispersed her remains.

Also, something I have always had in the back of my mind, what if she did make it to the meeting place and met with her husband...then???

 

[Topcat]

The thoughts I have on her getting hurt is she or at least her pack/clothes would have been at the very least partially recovered as animals will drag that stuff for a nest but not too far as for it not to be seen.
As for your last statement, it has crossed my mine more than once considering her husband seemed to throw in the towel too soon surprising some of the searchers.

 

[holmesleuthing]

Reading an article to refresh my memory, I had forgotten about the phone call. Would have been nice if phone records could have been looked at to find out who placed the call.

http://www.brentwoodhomepage.com/bh...earch-for-gerry-largay-cms-16486#.VV_nU5K9KK1

 

[Topcat]

In a previous article the woman who accompanied GL most of the trek was quoted as saying Gerry had a poor sense of direction and when they would stray from the trail upon returning she would be going in the wrong direction. If this was the case it's a possibility that she strayed out of the searched areas and was injured thus unable to return or was so far off the trail she couldn't find her way back.

 

[carbuff]

In a previous article the woman who accompanied GL most of the trek was quoted as saying Gerry had a poor sense of direction and when they would stray from the trail upon returning she would be going in the wrong direction. If this was the case it's a possibility that she strayed out of the searched areas and was injured thus unable to return or was so far off the trail she couldn't find her way back.

I hadn't heard that. That's interesting. It makes it sound like she might have gone out of the area that was searched, maybe?

 

[Topcat]

I'm on my phone so I don't know how to copy and paste but the article is in the Brentwood home page listed under the interview with the park rangers. Use the link in post 112. I found that quote odd in that GL had taken courses about the AT and had done plenty of shorter hikes. Being alone plus being in the rain might have been enough for her to deviate off the trail.

 

[watcher9]

I'm on my phone so I don't know how to copy and paste but the article is in the Brentwood home page listed under the interview with the park rangers. Use the link in post 112. I found that quote odd in that GL had taken courses about the AT and had done plenty of shorter hikes. Being alone plus being in the rain might have been enough for her to deviate off the trail.

is this the article you were talking about?
I wonder if she had always had a poor sense of direction or was that something that just was going on during this last hike? Like maybe she has having a bleed in her head?

Wardens were told by Largay’s friend Jane Lee, who hiked part of the trail with Largay, that the missing hiker had a poor sense of direction.

“A couple of times they’d get off the trail, and [Largay] would get back on headed in the wrong direction,” Egan said.

http://www.brentwoodhomepage.com/bh...gh-in-on-largay-search-cms-16379#.VWdMjs9VhHx

 

[Topcat]

Well this was her first experience being alone on the AT, mixed with the fact she has never been on the trail before,poor weather conditions and her "poor sense of direction " ,could have set her off course. This would explain why nothing of hers was ever recovered. ...the searchers didn't go more than 40 yards or so off the trail. 120,150 feet really isn't that far when you take in consideration the vastness of the area.

 

[watcher9]

You have on the top of the site the banner: Websleuths. Just under that you have a blue line with texts, beginning with : New Posts, Private Messages blablabla, the penultimate is Quick Links. If you click on the Quick Links a drop down menu will appear, you have to choose/click on: subscribed threads. A list of threads will appear. If you've posted in a thread, that thread will be on that list. That way you can always find your way back there. I don't know how many threads can stay on the subscribed threads list, as I always delete the ones I'm not visiting anymore.
One way of subscribing to a thread is by posting in them. The other way is that on the top of the thread's first post of every page you have to find the drop down menu: thread tools. You click on it, and from the drop down menu you choose : subscribe to this thread. IHTH

I did want to thank you for your advice about the Quick Links. I had never used it before, but I sure do now.

 

[carbuff]

Well this was her first experience being alone on the AT, mixed with the fact she has never been on the trail before,poor weather conditions and her "poor sense of direction " ,could have set her off course. This would explain why nothing of hers was ever recovered. ...the searchers didn't go more than 40 yards or so off the trail. 120,150 feet really isn't that far when you take in consideration the vastness of the area.

There are places along that section where she could fall and tumble more than 120 feet from the trail. Not many, but it would only take one.

 

[Unscripted]

M.I.A. on the A.T. (published June 30, 2015)
Lengthy article at link in which author addresses, among other things, the proximity of the US Naval Training Facility to Poplar Ridge Lean-to where Gerry was last seen. http://thebollard.com/2015/06/30/m-i-a-on-the-a-t/

A bit more about the anonymous female caller:

‘ Wardens now believe either the caller, or Critchlow, was mistaken, though it’s unclear how someone who hadn’t seen Gerry would have known she had a husband waiting for her at Route 27, or that the couple planned to spend the night at the motel. When I asked Lt. Kevin Adam of the Maine Warden Service about this, he said, “We’re sure we know who made the phone call, but the verbiage was screwed up.” After I expressed surprise that they’d identified the caller, Lt. Adam backtracked a bit. “I believe we know who made the call,” he said. “A little got lost in translation.” '