TN - Gail Nowacki Palmgren, 44, Signal Mountain, 30 April 2011 - #12

[Coldpizza]

sorry wrong thread

 

[TheDuchess]

April 30, 2011 was a beautiful day, mostly sunny in the low 80s according to Weather Underground. I remember thinking how strange it was to have such wonderful weather right after the terrible tornado outbreak a few days earlier.

http://www.wunderground.com/history...Mountain&req_state=TN&req_statename=Tennessee

Found the link. Thanks!

 

[nursebeeme]

I forget who asked but there are no guardrails on East Brow. There is a little rock wall. However, there are places you can pull your car over to look out at the view. You are driving right on the edge of the mountain. Very expensive houses on one side of East Brow, drop off on the other side.

and it was a jeep.... I have a jeep and they sit up very high and have increased risk of roll over with sudden maneuvers, turns, etc.. is the road curvy?

 

[TheDuchess]

OK-one last question from those in the know on this case. Where was her husband that morning? I read that he had said she left her 2 children alone in the house? I had also read there was some kind of altercation and do know there is some history of DV and calls to 911 in the days leading up to her disappearance. Anyone have a rundown?

 

[sarx]

How in the world will dogs get down there? The searchers had to rapel and they might have to air lift the vehicle out.

Oriah? Sarx?

I don't envy these teams at all. It is possible that the car stopped on some sort of shelf or semi flat area. There are teams who have trained for being dropped in via chopper and even repelling down, so it's not out of the question at all. The bigger question is why are they taking them down there as it is going to be incredibly rough to search given the terrain. I'm sure they will bring the car out and check it using dogs as well, which may give some clue as to what happened.

 

[glorias]

if you are familiar with the road in that area, are there guardrails?? Or is it open? Supposing a vehicle went over, wouldn't it have been possible to see the trail one could make breaking through trees that are close together? I mean, shouldn't there have been some evidence of a car going over and down???

The article on TFP now says that there was a rock missing off the edge of the road:

Residents had noticed that one of the large rocks that was on the edge of the road was missing but they didn't connect to the missing woman.

ETA: Is this anywhere near where the phone pinged the day she was reported missing? In looking at the map, it seems like it's not near the ping at all.

Edited again: From what I can tell, the ping was several miles south of where the Jeep was found. But we did have confusion on where the ping was coming from (Diane N said it was on the north side of the mountain) so I don't know if we can draw any conclusions at this point.

 

[RubyRed]

http://www.wrcbtv.com/story/16165994/discovery-made-on-signal-mountain

 

[little lulu]

http://www.wrcbtv.com/story/16165994/discovery-made-on-signal-mountain

sorry if this has been posted...it does show a map

 

[JayCeeVee]

From Chattanoogan.com

http://chattanoogan.com/articles/article_214590.asp

 

[JayCeeVee]

http://www.wrcbtv.com/story/16165994/discovery-made-on-signal-mountain

Sadly only 2 miles from her home...just hope and pray we end up discovering the real story here.

 

[ThoughtFox]

Does anyone know what the weather was like when Gail disappeared?

The weather was perfect for a week after the tornadoes. It was sunny the day she disappeared - no fog, no clouds.

 

[ThoughtFox]

Someone asked why the jeep didn't explode, but this is a wooded ravine full of vines and foliage. It was April and everything was green and growing, and not bare rock. Anything as big as a jeep would have bounced around among the trees and probably lodged against them.

I was just watching the news and my heart fell when they said they found no body - to me that's the worst case scenario. It's true she might have been thrown out of the jeep, and could be under mounds of fallen leaves right now.

The thing is, she could have driven over the edge of the cliff, end of story. Or the car could just as easily have been pushed over the edge. :twocents: If no one saw or heard her going over during the middle of a busy Saturday, then why would anyone notice at night? They would just think it was the sound of cars or motorcycles coming up the W-Road - there's an echo sometimes.

ETA: And this still doesn't answer the question of where she was going and why. Why did she leave the house and go that direction? It's just odd. Did she think she needed to go to Mountain Creek Road where her mother-in-law lives? Then why did the husband show up at the house wondering where she was? More Questions...

Strangely, when my husband told some co-workers the jeep had been found, one woman he works with said that the W-Road had been closed yesterday for what they thought was tree-pruning and fallen limbs from a wind storm we had the other day. Can anyone else confirm that?

 

[RubyRed]

Sadly only 2 miles from her home...just hope and pray we end up discovering the real story here.

I lived in this area for 10 years and some of these roads are dangerous.

In this video it says her cell pinged in this area for 2 weeks. Is that correct?
I am just thinking if it was something sinister why leave the cell on.

http://www.wrcbtv.com/story/16165994/discovery-made-on-signal-mountain

Sheriff Hammond said the top and the windshield of the vehicle were ripped off and it is likely that the driver was thrown out.

http://chattanoogan.com/articles/article_214590.asp

 

[glorias]

respectfully snipped

The thing is, she could have driven over the edge of the cliff, end of story. Or the car could just as easily have been pushed over the edge. :twocents: If no one saw or heard her going over during the middle of a busy Saturday, then why would anyone notice at night? They would just think it was the sound of cars coming up the W-Road.

ETA: And this still doesn't answer the question of where she was going and why. Why did she leave the house and go that direction? It's just odd.

Strangely, when my husband told some co-workers the jeep had been found, one woman he works with said that the W-Road had been closed yesterday for what they thought was tree-pruning and fallen limbs from a wind storm we had the other day. Can anyone else confirm that?

Interesting. The TFP article mentions "leads," perhaps someone trimming the trees saw the Jeep?

It is odd that no one noticed anything on a busy Saturday. You'd think that someone would have noticed tire marks from braking and evidence of when the Jeep hit the rock that is missing -- parts of the Jeep would surely have fallen off when it impacted that rock. But if the rock was moved so a Jeep could be pushed off the side of the road, that would be a different story.

 

[Irish_Eyes]

Wow!!! I just checked into WS, and I never thought I'd see this today. I'm so happy there is a break in the case, but so sad at the same time. I want Gail found, and I want all of our questions answered.

Many of us here suspected MP was involved in her disappearance due to the events leading up to 4/30 and his lack of interaction with LE. Some others just as vocally believed that Gail just couldn't take it anymore and up and left. Others countered she would never leave her children. And the accident theory did come up numerous times.

Perhaps we were all right - and wrong. The best outcome would have been that Gail was alive somewhere. That looks quite unlikely. But the second best outcome is that her children may possibly have the answer that their father did not harm their mother AND their mother didn't just abandon them. I guess that's what I hope for now.

 

[nursebeeme]

I lived in this area for 10 years and some of these roads are dangerous.

In this video it says her cell pinged in this area for 2 weeks. Is that correct?
I am just thinking if it was something sinister why leave the cell on.

http://www.wrcbtv.com/story/16165994/discovery-made-on-signal-mountain




http://chattanoogan.com/articles/article_214590.asp

that is what I wanted to know. thanks... (re: the condition of the top of the vehicle and windows.... as she could have been ejected)

 

[ThoughtFox]

This has answered one question, at least ~ she didn't leave her children on purpose to go off somewhere. It really helps to know that.

 

[glorias]

In this video it says her cell pinged in this area for 2 weeks. Is that correct?

No idea if that's correct. All we knew about pings was that it pinged the day she was reported missing. The ping was at a cell tower near Wal-Mart, the one at 501 Signal Mountain Road where meet-ups were held. Later her sister Diane N. said that the phone pinged on the north side of the mountain. We never heard anything else because LE wouldn't talk to the media about it. It's possible that phone pinged for 2 weeks... and if I may be so bold, if it DID ping for 2 weeks in that area, I would very much like to know what, if any, searches they did while it was pinging. Because as far as we know, they didn't do ANY.

 

[PoppyMcTwist]

if you are familiar with the road in that area, are there guardrails?? Or is it open? Supposing a vehicle went over, wouldn't it have been possible to see the trail one could make breaking through trees that are close together? I mean, shouldn't there have been some evidence of a car going over and down???

Good questions.

And unless she was incapacitated at the time of the crash, there should be brake marks, tire skids on that road.

 

[RabidBadger]

No idea if that's correct. All we knew about pings was that it pinged the day she was reported missing. The ping was at a cell tower near Wal-Mart, the one at 501 Signal Mountain Road where meet-ups were held. Later her sister Diane N. said that the phone pinged on the north side of the mountain. We never heard anything else because LE wouldn't talk to the media about it. It's possible that phone pinged for 2 weeks... and if I may be so bold, if it DID ping for 2 weeks in that area, I would very much like to know what, if any, searches they did while it was pinging. Because as far as we know, they didn't do ANY.

Was it an iphone? Iphones don't have anywhere close to that kind of battery life, even if it sits there idle the whole time