On to #2, Trenny Gibson. First a quote on the basics from Richard.
Trenny Lynn Gibson
Missing since October 8, 1976 from Great Smoky Mountains, Tennessee.
Classification: Endangered Missing
Vital Statistics
Date Of Birth: August 17, 1960
Age at Time of Disappearance: 16 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'3"; 115 lbs.
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Brown hair; green eyes.
Clothing: Gibson was last seen wearing blue jeans, a blue blouse, a blue and white striped sweater, blue Adidas shoes, and a star sapphire and diamond ring. She initially had no jacket with her, but during the hike borrowed a brown plaid jacket from a friend. She was wearing the jacket when she went missing.
Circumstances of Disappearance
Gibson accompanied 40 of her classmates from Bearden High School in Knoxville, Tennessee on a field trip to The Great Smoky Mountains National Park on October 8, 1976. The students were hiking to Andrews Bald on the trip and separated into small groups when they arrived at the trails. Gibson apparently hiked with several different sections of her classmates at different paces during the day. She was last seen at approximately 3:00 PM near Clingman's Dome.
Gibson disappeared without a trace and has not been seen again. Extensive searches of the park continued until the end of October 1976, but she was never located.
Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation 1-800-TBI-FIND
NCIC Number: M-008253504
Please refer to this number when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.
Further info:
Searchers found 3 cigarette butts and a beer can with beer fresh enough to still have an odor. The items were found close to where Trenny disappeared. Trenny didn't smoke. No students admitted to bringing beer to the park.
Trackings dogs were brought in. Several tracked Trenny's scent to a paved road about 1.6 miles from the Clingmans Dome parking area. On Sunday, the 10th, 3 more tracking dogs, working separately, tracked her scent to the same road.
Searchers found cigarette butts of the same type at that area as had been found on the trail.
The parents told of Kelvin Bowman making threats to kill Trenny prior to the field trip. Some students told the parents they had seen Bowman following the bus that day. Investigators checked and Bowman had been in school all day.
Robert Simpson, the student that spent the most time with Trenny on the hiking trail, told Trenny's younger sister the next day, "If Kelvin Bowman has Trenny, he will kill her. If he does not have her, I think she might have run off with some horny hitch-hiker.
According to some students, Trenny's comb was found in Robert Simpson's car. Trenny's mother says she never, ever parted with that comb. Simpson doesn't appear to have been questioned about it.
Reasons against her being a runaway:
She left more than $200 in her room.
The field trip destination wasn't announced until the students had boarded the bus. The teacher overseeing the field trip thought this made it impossible for the bus to have been followed.
She left her pocketbook with her ID and pocket money with her mother.
3 weeks before she disappeared, Trenny had injured her foot and was taking medication for it. She left the medicine at home.
Her older brother was on leave from the Navy the coming weekend and Trenny was looking forward to seeing him.
