TN TN - Teresa 'Trenny' Lynn Gibson, 16, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 8 Oct 1976

[Deenie1963]

L

Why would she run away with nothing? She wasn't in good clothes for the hike/outdoors. She wasn't even sure there was going to be a field trip that day, according to her mother's account (and apparently no one knew where they were going). She had a good chunk of money left behind in her bank account from her job at the K&W cafeteria, and she left her jewelry behind. Running away in these circumstances doesn't fit for me. The usual consensus in the 70's when a teen went missing was that they ran away. So her peers saying that, without any additional details and anecdotes, does not sway me in that direction.

@Starbuck80
I’ve been working on a case for 18 years that has so many similarities it just gives me goosebumps. Missing girl on the Oregon Coast, tons of high school classmates nearby, some who have thrown out cryptic hints over the years. Covered up by people in power whose kids were obviously involved on some level. Etc etc etc. Stuns me how many dynamics are exactly the same. And the girl who gave the half smile after saying that Trenny was dead half an hour after she got there? Another bone chilling similarity as my case had 3 girls who were young adolescents who ridiculed the victim and spoke of her in the past tense a week after the victim disappeared. Even the journey that led you here is similar to my own. And like me, I know you will never give up. Thank you for all the work you have done and continue to do on Trenny’s behalf. One day I have NO DOUBT that you will find the answers and or Trenny’s remains. Because the Universe did NOT send you on this wild journey without a REASON.

 

[theshadow45]

Today is Trenny’s birthday.

 

[T rex]

Just my thoughts on this case. I always felt that Trennie went off trail and got lost and perhaps ended up on the Applachian Trail by accident. It always seemed the simplest explanation.

RSBM

Hey it's my second favorite theory. According to the search report one of the students said Trenny may have been going cross country back to the parking lot and I think it was in one of the newspapers that a student mentioned something about a race. These two things could go hand in hand when it comes to cutting a corner. If this were to be the case and she over shot the parking lot then she should have ended up over in the Noland Creek area.

But I still think she jetted.

 

[Betty P]

RSBM

Hey it's my second favorite theory. According to the search report one of the students said Trenny may have been going cross country back to the parking lot and I think it was in one of the newspapers that a student mentioned something about a race. These two things could go hand in hand when it comes to cutting a corner. If this were to be the case and she over shot the parking lot then she should have ended up over in the Noland Creek area.

But I still think she jetted.

What is "jetted"?

 

[Betty P]

Just my thoughts on this case. I always felt that Trennie went off trail and got lost and perhaps ended up on the Applachian Trail by accident. It always seemed the simplest explanation.

This has happened before, unfortunately, with fatal results. The Appalachian Trial is very close to the parking lot.

 

[T rex]

This has happened before, unfortunately, with fatal results. The Appalachian Trial is very close to the parking lot.

There are several trails, a parking lot and an observation tower between where Trenny was last seen and the AT. If not for the dogs I wouldn't give the AT too much consideration. I would just think she got lost over in the Noland Creek area.

What is "jetted"?

It just means she took off.

 

[theshadow45]

Trenny has been missing for 48 years today.

 

[PommyMommy]

OCT 17, 2024

https://www.wate.com/news/lonely-bones/girl-still-missing-after-disappearing-on-1976-high-school-trip-in-the-smokies/

If Gibson were found alive today, she would be 64 years old. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children created an age progressed photo of what she may have looked like around age 62.

Anyone with information on what may have happened to Gibson is asked to call the Investigative Branch of the National Park Service at (888)-653-0009 or contact local law enforcement.

 

[Sweetluv]

I wonder if she got lost..found a path leading to a roadway and someone offered her a ride...leading to foul play.
Being by herself and lost in the vast woods, she could have fell and injured herself badly..died from hyperthermia or blood loss. Sad..this story could have many scenarios on what actually happened.

 

[jetsfanjohn]

I wonder if she got lost..found a path leading to a roadway and someone offered her a ride...leading to foul play.
Being by herself and lost in the vast woods, she could have fell and injured herself badly..died from hyperthermia or blood loss. Sad..this story could have many scenarios on what actually happened.

It's possible. Dogs apparently tracked her scent from the woods to a nearby road, I believe. I tend to think she went off trail for reasons unknown and unintentionally got lost in the woods.

 

[DD Byrd]

It's possible. Dogs apparently tracked her scent from the woods to a nearby road, I believe. I tend to think she went off trail for reasons unknown and unintentionally got lost in the woods.

Agreed that she made it to the road. The one constant for me is the ranger's report which was written at a specific moment in real time, to never change or be nuanced.

Dogs can miss a scent, but I don't think they, and I emphasize "they" get false hits and then follow them that far, to a road. I believe it was Trenny seen crying while walking along that road. The unknowns are why she was crying and where she ended up. I'd think "tracking a bear" might be a cover for "tried to make a move on Trenny and she didn't like it and/or panicked and fled," distraught and possibly in shock.

Once she got to the road she might have gotten into a car intentionally and the rest went downhill. It very well could have been an innocent ride to the next pay phone, and there she encountered someone who killed her. In 1976 I don't think it unusual that whoever picked her up would even know she became a decades long missing person. Especially if that driver were older and died long before wide-spread cable coverage and certainly the internet much later.

 

[Kudzuu]

Yes. In 1976 it was not unusual to hitch a ride down the road.

It also would be very easy to change your name if you wanted to start a new life.

I had an uncle who never in his entire 80 years had an ID. He didn't drive and never needed one. If he had he could just say I'm so and so. This person you know is my sister.

Trenny, for whatever reason may have done that. Or she could have met foul play.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

The records, which include extensive documents from the search, state that Gibson was last seen by a few others in the group around 2:50 p.m. as they were about half-a-mile away from the parking area. One of the members of the group said they stopped to rest, but “Trenny went on, seemed to be in a hurry to get back.” Another person in the group told crews that they thought she “may have tried to go cross-country to [the] Dome parking area.”

The records say Gibson was first known to be missing at 3:30 p.m. when the group got back to the bus, and that several people looked for her, but did not see a trace of her. Some now specifically point out that one person saw tennis shoe tracks about the size of Gibson’s on the Appalachian Trail toward the Double Springs Shelter, but they lost the tracks about a half a mile past the intersection of the Appalachian Trail and the trail to Forney Creek and Andrew’s Bald Trail

https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/mid-south/missing-1976-high-school-trip-teresa-lynn-gibson/

 

[DD Byrd]

In Trenny's case it's certainly possible she planned it and met someone in the parking lot at a predetermined time. But there's the chance for a witness to see this driver or something to go unexpectedly, so to me it's more likely she planned to get to the road and be gone via hitchhiking before the class returned to the parking lot and noticed her absence. That would explain some accounts of her ahead of her classmates on the descent.

I believe she was indeed seen crying while walking on the road, and in a pre-planned scenario, she could be crying thinking about the family she was leaving or from last second jitters. Still a very ballsy move for a teenager, but then it's not certain she was intending to run away forever. It does raise questions if her brother really said to keep an eye on her, maybe she was unstable and unpredictable at that time. You never know the real story behind closed doors. I think she left by car from the road, with who, to where and why are my questions. If she was already on edge, was drinking, had an unwanted advance or any combination thereof, I can definitely see her taking off in a split-second decision.

From there she could have turned to street life and drugs, making her unwilling and eventually unable to be "found," ended up happily living under a new identity, or died the same day or shortly thereafter.

If she's in the park, I don't think it's a result of getting lost. But if she got in a car and something happened to her at a campsite or lookout parking on the way out she could be not far from the road.

 

[Kristin83]

This podcast may or may not have been shared already - I only stumbled upon it by chance. Some very interesting dialogue regarding Trenny's relatives' theories.

 

[PommyMommy]

OCT 31, 2024

https://www.wate.com/news/lonely-bones/5-missing-persons-cases-remain-unsolved-in-the-great-smoky-mountains-national-park/

Searches for Gibson initially continued through October 18, 1976 and continued again the following spring. In the years since, the records state that multiple law enforcement agencies have contacted the National Park Service since 1991 in regards to unidentified remains cases that could potentially match Gibson’s description.

 

[UncoolNegated]

I think it's worth pointing out that Bradford Bishop, who spent several years on the FBI's most wanted list, may have been in the Smoky Mountains National Park in October 1976. His abandoned vehicle was found in the park in March 1976, several days after allegedly killing his family. He was a camper, hiker, and avid outdoorsman. Furthermore, he is largely unaccounted for between March 1976 and July 1978.

I think that his car was found at a remote campground in the park suggests that his strategy for hiding from the authorities in the immediate aftermath of the murders was to use his outdoorsman skills to hide in remote areas. It's possible that he lived in the park in the months after his disappearance.

However, the connection to this case may only be tenuous. But I do think that people should be aware of the possibility that he may have still been in the park at the time of Trenny Gibson's disappearance.

 

[dogperson]

Yesterday I watched this 2 month old podcast about Trenny Gibson and it includes some very detailed interviews with two people who have investigated her case for years. What they have found out contradicts almost everything I thought I knew about this and they say that Trenny's mom wasn't truthful about Kelvin Bowman and the night she shot him in the foot. I'd always thought the story about that didn't make sense and this podcast includes a law enforcement officer's statement about what a neighbor of the Gibson's said about seeing Kelvin on the street that night after he'd been shot, which doesn't line up with what Holly Gibson said.

The two investigators in this podcast state that Kelvin Bowman and Trenny Gibson were in a relationship and that she would leave her window open and unlocked on a particular night every week when her dad wasn't home and that Kelvin was halfway in the window when he was shot in the foot. They also say that Trenny was involved with another African American male after Kelvin and they know his identity but cannot locate him to interview him. They do not think Kelvin had anything whatsoever to do with Trenny's disappearance, nor do they think Robert Simpson did, but their interviews with Kelvin and the investigating they've done has led them to firmly believer that the Gibson family lied about a number of things, partly because they wanted to cover up their daughter's interest in African American men (either because they were racist or becuase they lived in a racist area).

They could find nothing to back up Mrs. Gibson's claim that Kelvin declared in court or anywhere else that he would kill Trenny. They also could find only Mrs. Gibson's statement that Robert went to "track a bear" and left Trenny to walk down the trail alone.

Interviews they've conducted with former classmates of Trenny's have uncovered stories of pretty extreme family dysfunction at the Gibson home. Former classmates also say there were rumors that she ran into the woods that day to escape 3-4 classmates who accosted her, took her ring from her (worth $600, which shocked me as that was a LOT in the 70s), and that she only managed to slip loose from them because Robert's coat was so big that she slithered out of it, which would explain why he later had her comb in his possession. The students had heard that she ran into the woods and got lost and presumably perished, although since several dogs tracked her to the road it's equally possible that she found her way to the road and caught a ride with the wrong kind of person. One investigator believes she purposely went missing at that point and is still alive; the other thinks she is deceased.

I found the podcast very compelling and it includes pictures and names of a number of the students who were persons of interest (all are dead). I thought you'd enjoy watching it to see what you think of it.

 

[Betty P]

Yesterday I watched this 2 month old podcast about Trenny Gibson and it includes some very detailed interviews with two people who have investigated her case for years. What they have found out contradicts almost everything I thought I knew about this and they say that Trenny's mom wasn't truthful about Kelvin Bowman and the night she shot him in the foot. I'd always thought the story about that didn't make sense and this podcast includes a law enforcement officer's statement about what a neighbor of the Gibson's said about seeing Kelvin on the street that night after he'd been shot, which doesn't line up with what Holly Gibson said.

The two investigators in this podcast state that Kelvin Bowman and Trenny Gibson were in a relationship and that she would leave her window open and unlocked on a particular night every week when her dad wasn't home and that Kelvin was halfway in the window when he was shot in the foot. They also say that Trenny was involved with another African American male after Kelvin and they know his identity but cannot locate him to interview him. They do not think Kelvin had anything whatsoever to do with Trenny's disappearance, nor do they think Robert Simpson did, but their interviews with Kelvin and the investigating they've done has led them to firmly believer that the Gibson family lied about a number of things, partly because they wanted to cover up their daughter's interest in African American men (either because they were racist or becuase they lived in a racist area).

They could find nothing to back up Mrs. Gibson's claim that Kelvin declared in court or anywhere else that he would kill Trenny. They also could find only Mrs. Gibson's statement that Robert went to "track a bear" and left Trenny to walk down the trail alone.

Interviews they've conducted with former classmates of Trenny's have uncovered stories of pretty extreme family dysfunction at the Gibson home. Former classmates also say there were rumors that she ran into the woods that day to escape 3-4 classmates who accosted her, took her ring from her (worth $600, which shocked me as that was a LOT in the 70s), and that she only managed to slip loose from them because Robert's coat was so big that she slithered out of it, which would explain why he later had her comb in his possession. The students had heard that she ran into the woods and got lost and presumably perished, although since several dogs tracked her to the road it's equally possible that she found her way to the road and caught a ride with the wrong kind of person. One investigator believes she purposely went missing at that point and is still alive; the other thinks she is deceased.

I found the podcast very compelling and it includes pictures and names of a number of the students who were persons of interest (all are dead). I thought you'd enjoy watching it to see what you think of it.

Thanks, I'll try to watch it. Looks like its pretty long. The scenario of her running into the woods to get away from classmates who were hassling her sounds very realistic, JMO. It's always been one of my top 2 theories. I've always felt it would explain how other students ended up with some of her possessions. She would have gotten lost very quickly, with little hope of ever finding her way out. It's just miles and miles of very rugged, dense forest in a mountainous area. It was late enough in the year that the temperature would have dropped drastically at night.

Those are interesting allegations about the mother and Trenny's social life. As suspicious as it may sound, it seems very clear that no one in her family knew where she was that day and wouldn't have been present on the mountain trail where and when she went missing.

 

[Choochoobella]

Yesterday I watched this 2 month old podcast about Trenny Gibson and it includes some very detailed interviews with two people who have investigated her case for years. What they have found out contradicts almost everything I thought I knew about this and they say that Trenny's mom wasn't truthful about Kelvin Bowman and the night she shot him in the foot. I'd always thought the story about that didn't make sense and this podcast includes a law enforcement officer's statement about what a neighbor of the Gibson's said about seeing Kelvin on the street that night after he'd been shot, which doesn't line up with what Holly Gibson said.

The two investigators in this podcast state that Kelvin Bowman and Trenny Gibson were in a relationship and that she would leave her window open and unlocked on a particular night every week when her dad wasn't home and that Kelvin was halfway in the window when he was shot in the foot. They also say that Trenny was involved with another African American male after Kelvin and they know his identity but cannot locate him to interview him. They do not think Kelvin had anything whatsoever to do with Trenny's disappearance, nor do they think Robert Simpson did, but their interviews with Kelvin and the investigating they've done has led them to firmly believer that the Gibson family lied about a number of things, partly because they wanted to cover up their daughter's interest in African American men (either because they were racist or becuase they lived in a racist area).

They could find nothing to back up Mrs. Gibson's claim that Kelvin declared in court or anywhere else that he would kill Trenny. They also could find only Mrs. Gibson's statement that Robert went to "track a bear" and left Trenny to walk down the trail alone.

Interviews they've conducted with former classmates of Trenny's have uncovered stories of pretty extreme family dysfunction at the Gibson home. Former classmates also say there were rumors that she ran into the woods that day to escape 3-4 classmates who accosted her, took her ring from her (worth $600, which shocked me as that was a LOT in the 70s), and that she only managed to slip loose from them because Robert's coat was so big that she slithered out of it, which would explain why he later had her comb in his possession. The students had heard that she ran into the woods and got lost and presumably perished, although since several dogs tracked her to the road it's equally possible that she found her way to the road and caught a ride with the wrong kind of person. One investigator believes she purposely went missing at that point and is still alive; the other thinks she is deceased.

I found the podcast very compelling and it includes pictures and names of a number of the students who were persons of interest (all are dead). I thought you'd enjoy watching it to see what you think of it.

Thank you for the link to this video. It may be long, but it was extremely informative and interesting.