Found Deceased VA - Nicole Clardy Mittendorff, 31, Woodbridge, 13 April 2016 - #1

[JoCoKSEyes]

Gotta think a woman NM's age, in that kind of physical condition and with fire and rescue related training wouldn't be the easiest target for random crime. Statistics is what I'm left with here.


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[Mountain Misst]

I've gleaned what I could from the thread. Could someone please confirm if this is correct.

 

[grsz11]

Either she suffered an accident or went out with no intention of coming back.

 

[Mistree]

Not sure when her roommate saw her last, but her friends said she was at her workout class on Monday night.

Roommate?
Is there a link that discusses this?

 

[Jon]

An update from VSP has been posted on Facebook:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10154415137795101&id=297815375100

 

[Rcsff8231]

I went to school with her husband and sister in law. He is the area commander for Arlington and Alexandria for the state police...I would imagine her dad is the one commenting due to his position and his employer being the lead investigating agency

 

[Rcsff8231]

Cont..as for her I know a lot of people who work with her. Ffx county works a 24/48 schedule...with rotating 24 hour shifts and after a couple on/off shifts they have a four day break. If she was last known to be off and out and about on weds and missed report time Friday she most likely had worked her last shift on Sunday...providing she had not worked Any overtime

 

[Rcsff8231]

Sorry last post....she is a member of cross fit Warrenton which would explain her being in town. She is known by many people in Warrenton so her being there is not anything out of the ordinary

 

[steelman]

Cont..as for her I know a lot of people who work with her. Ffx county works a 24/48 schedule...with rotating 24 hour shifts and after a couple on/off shifts they have a four day break. If she was last known to be off and out and about on weds and missed report time Friday she most likely had worked her last shift on Sunday...providing she had not worked Any overtime

Do you have any kind of a feel for what may be going on here ?

 

[Rcsff8231]

I have no clue to be honest. I think we have all played the what ifs..that's all we got at this point. This day and age anything is possible. I just hope for her and the family's sale she either was hurt and just needs to be found or willingly left the area unannounced

 

[tabitha111]

Interesting tidbit here too...Look for E. S. comments (second one)
https://www.facebook.com/VirginiaSt...795101&notif_t=like&notif_id=1460936373621178

 

[steelman]

I have no clue to be honest. I think we have all played the what ifs..that's all we got at this point. This day and age anything is possible. I just hope for her and the family's sale she either was hurt and just needs to be found or willingly left the area unannounced

Thanks, I tend to think it's some kind of an accident or medical emergency just judging by everything I've read so far. She may have been jogging along and tripped and fell headfirst down into the bottom of a ravine or off the side of a cliff. As much fun as it can be to try and come up with ominous scenarios, I doubt this is going to be one of them. Accidents still happen, regardless of how the lawyers feel about it.

 

[Zuri]

I've gleaned what I could from the thread. Could someone please confirm if this is correct.

Thank you Mountain Misst for joining in. I believe that is the parking lot where her car was found from what everyone has described. I am looking forward to any info you can provide as your insight is so spot on and has helped with 2 missing persons that I am aware of.

Mountain Misst, a forensic intuit, is amazing for those that don't know of her or witnessed her help in previous cases.

 

[grsz11]

Thank you Mountain Misst for joining in. I believe that is the parking lot where her car was found from what everyone has described. I am looking forward to any info you can provide as your insight is so spot on and has helped with 2 missing persons that I am aware of.

Mountain Misst, a forensic intuit, is amazing for those that don't know of her or witnessed her help in previous cases.

If that's where the car really was found than no camera driving through the gate, as that lot is not along the drive as the other access point is. And also invalidates the Facebook comment mentioned above.

 

[Zuri]

If that's where the car really was found than no camera driving through the gate, as that lot is not along the drive as the other access point is. And also invalidates the Facebook comment mentioned above.

Oh thank you for clarifying this. I thought her car was found in the parking lot near the Whiteoak Trail. I am then confused as to what lot VSP is talking about. Would you be kind enough to post the spot for Mountain Misst please?

 

[grsz11]

Oh thank you for clarifying this. I thought her car was found in the parking lot near the Whiteoak Trail. I am then confused as to what lot VSP is talking about. Would you be kind enough to post the spot for Mountain Misst please?

I don't know for sure where it was found. There are two trailheads, both in the national park, but only one is along Skyline Drive.

https://www.nps.gov/shen/planyourvi...ZPN5NC5-JwBEPtMCg&sig2=VxRnkmlISC9jFHYF8hY3LQ

Shared route
From Syria, VA to white oak trailhead va via VA-231 N and Skyline Dr.

58 min (34*mi)
58 min in current traffic


1. Head northwest on VA-670 toward State Rte 643
2. Turn right onto State Rte 643
3. Turn right to stay on State Rte 643
4. Turn left onto VA-231 N
5. Turn left onto US-522 N
6. Turn right to stay on US-522 N
7. Turn left onto US-211 W
8. Take the exit toward Skyline Dr
9. Keep left at the fork to continue toward Skyline Dr
10. Turn left
11. Arrive at location: white oak trailhead va

For the best route in current traffic visit https://goo.gl/maps/1HrYYyPJxNG2

 

[Mountain Misst]

Is there an official MPR time other than what's on FB?

I think you are spot on regarding parking lot location. A FB poster on the Find Nicole page (who lives in Syria, VA) said the car was found in a lot 5 minutes from her house (small town - word gets around quickly). This makes sense.

However, I cannot make sense of reports that her last text was sent from Warrenton, VA. Look at a map. I live in Northern VA and no route from Woodbridge to the location of the parking lot in Syria would take you through (or even near) Warrenton. Warrenton is on Route 15 and quite north of any logical path. Unless she went somewhere else first, this is confusing to me.

BBM Is the parking lot 5mins from the commenter's house or Nicole's? I suppose this matters little if Nicole also lives in Syria.

 

[ophe]

I've hiked the white oak canyon/cedar run loop a couple times and spent a good bit of time in the area and thought I'd try to help explain a couple things. The parking lot where it sounds like they found the car (judging by their search location it was the lot by weakley hollow lot and not by skyline dr as that area was initially left open during the search) can be accessed without going through a main ranger gate. It IS right next to a ranger station (which is where you pay) but from the comments of folks who have been out there recently, no ranger has been there during the week (pay by leaving money in an envelope).

White Oak Canyon is one of the most popular trails in the whole park. During the weekend, especially around the lower falls, when the weather is nice it can be full of families and non-hikers hauling up coolers and partaking in beverages. It would make sense to want to do this trail during the week when it's not so crowded. And a lot of people go out on this trail by themselves; it's not considered unusual. Some of the folks I've run into didn't seem to have much sense but they still made it out okay. And it's not like old rag where it is a particularly difficult trail. Now, if you go off trail around the falls and rock scramble you could get into trouble. And Cedar Run is a sharp descent with a lot of slippery rocks. But for someone in her condition she could do the whole thing in 3 hours or less if she liked. The trail is well marked in most areas but you can always get lost if you're not paying attention.

The weather was nice this past saturday before they shut the trail down so I would think a good amount of people were on it and that if she was just hurt and stuck around the trail area, someone would likely have spotted her then. Anytime you're in the woods things can go wrong and of course it doesn't need to involve foul play. But statistics say when bad things of the human variety happen to hikers generally it takes place within a mile of a road. So if foul play is suspected I would focus in the areas of the trail that would fit that radius.

One of the few times an encounter with a black bear is likely to be dangerous is with a momma and her cubs. I believe right now is when the bears and their cubs are just leaving their dens to find food. Generally this trail has too many people tramping about to be in any danger of a bear encounter. But mid-week when there's a lot less people it's a much higher possibility and I wouldn't rule it out.

If she had her cell phone on her, she would be able to get service from the top of the upper falls but that's about it. And leaving GPS on would be a recipe for a dead phone so I doubt they have GPS data.

Who knows what I don't know, but I'm a little surprised with how the search effort has been coordinated. Of course you try tracking dogs but with the most likely hundreds of people having been on the trail since Nicole, the chances of them finding anything are little to none. Dogs aren't magic. I would think given the little window of time left for a positive outcome, it would be more important to have more people in the area searching than to preserve evidence. I understand the need to keep out the "new boots and a compass" crowd but they also seem to be keeping out the experienced hikers who could help. And LEOs generally aren't experts of the outdoors so I'm not sure I would go solely with them. Plus the rangers I've met in the park were lovely people but none of them seemed to spend much time on the trails either. But maybe that's just the ones I happened to chat with.

 

[The OG]

Excellent analysis ophe! I agree.

 

[grsz11]

Is there an official MPR time other than what's on FB?



BBM Is the parking lot 5mins from the commenter's house or Nicole's? I suppose this matters little if Nicole also lives in Syria.

Nicole is from Woodbridge. One hour plus away.

Also, the lower parking lot doesn't appear to be within the park, but the trail is.