When a beloved wife, mother, and grandmother sets out on a life-long dream to conquer the Appalachian Trail, her plans abruptly change. The mystery of what happened to her reveals a harrowing series of events that remain puzzling to those closest to her.View source material and photos for this episode at: parkpredators.com/the-vanisher Park Predators is an audiochuck production. Connect with us on social media:Instagram: @parkpredators | @audiochuckTwitter: @ParkPredators | @audiochuckFacebook: /ParkPredators | /audiochuckllcTikTok: @audiochuck
What is the mystery surrounding the Appalachian Trail disappearance?
Hi, park enthusiasts. I'm your host, Delia D'Ambra, and the case I'm going to tell you about today is a unique one. It involves a missing person who disappeared from the Appalachian Trail, one of the most well-known and well-hiked trails in the continental United States.
In fact, VisitMaine.com and AppalachianTrail.com state that the AT is the longest hiking-only footpath on the planet at nearly 2,200 miles. It crosses through 14 different states on the east coast of the U.S. and attracts roughly 3 million visitors every year. I've covered other cases on this show involving the AT, but none have the bizarre details that this one has.
The story takes place in the summer of 2013, when an avid hiker traversing the trail through Maine vanished without a trace. She was walking along the 282 miles of the AT that cut through Maine, which VisitMaine.com reports as one of the most challenging sections of the trail. And that's because a lot of the mileage hikers cover is in remote areas or mountainous terrain.
Only an unwise or inexperienced person would dare to walk the AT there without the right kind of gear, plans, and preparations. In this story, though, none of those things seem to be an issue, which is why at the outset of this case, so many questions cropped up about what exactly happened that fateful summer in Maine.
Bye.
Around 7.15 in the morning on Monday, July 22nd, 2013, George Largay looked at his phone and saw that his wife, 66-year-old Geraldine Largay, had texted him to let him know that she was on the move and would see him soon. Geraldine, who mostly was known by her nickname, Jerry, was several months into a hiking trip on the Appalachian Trail.
Along the way, she had been meeting her husband at various checkpoints to replenish her supplies. The plan was for them to meet up the next day, Tuesday, July 23rd, at a parking area adjacent to the trail near Wyman Township, Maine. That way, Jerry could offload the stuff she didn't want to keep carrying and pick up new food and gear for her hike.
Not long before embarking on her journey, Geri had retired from her job as a nurse and really gotten serious about trying to complete the AT just for fun.
The endeavor was something she'd been wanting to do for a long time, but initially, George, her husband, had not been a huge fan of the idea because he was worried that a prior lower back injury she sustained would cause her problems on such an ambitious hike. But eventually he got on board because he knew his wife of more than 42 years wasn't going to let up.
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