This case touches my heart and I’ve kept up with the sparse details since Veronica’s disappearance was reported on the local news.
I grew up around LMU and I lived in Tellico Plains for a short period of time as a young adult. I even used to frequently hike at Eagle Gap. My heart goes out to all of her loved ones.
Although it has frequently been stated that Veronica loves to venture off the beaten path, I don’t believe it makes much sense to go through Tellico Plains when going to from Harrogate, TN to Asheville, NC, especially since she had plans with her daughter. It is much further south than one would ever need to go, and there are plenty of scenic routes that would have made more sense.
As someone stated, the weather was hazardous that day. It was not a pop up storm. The Cherohala Skyway is steep. The roads are not salted or treated for wintry weather, and at that kind of elevation, it is extremely likely that the roads would have been adversely impacted. However, if she did decide to go that way, it’s possible that she was entirely unphased by the threat of bad weather as it seems she had always (or for a good portion of her life at the very least) lived in or around mountains.
The only thing that I can formulate is that she picked up a hitchhiker, especially given her seemingly very kind and free spirit. It isn’t uncommon to encounter hitchhikers, especially “road kids”. They usually have interesting aesthetics, occasionally have companion animals, and mental illness (be it addiction or other ailments) run absolutely rampant in the subculture. I only mention this because I’ve met countless of them in the general area, and have had less than pleasant experiences with a few of them. It’s just an idea - it could have been an entirely different kind of hitchhiker or a different scenario altogether. It just seems as a kind hearted person, and as a mother, she might have been more likely to allow an obviously homeless kid into her vehicle.
Could it be possible that she was left somewhere else, and then someone ditched the car at Eagle Gap, then proceeded to bail? It would not add up for her abductor (assuming that this case is an abduction) to drop the car there and then leave with her. It more than likely would have been spontaneous and I normally don’t associate spontaneous crimes with seamless coordination.
I hope that Veronica can still come home safely, or that her family gets some closure at the very least.
