Lost hiker's message: Please call husband when my body is found
Gerladine Largay posed for this photo on July 22, 2013, the last time she was seen.
Story highlights
- Gerry Largay was hiking the Appalachian Trail when she disappeared in 2013
- Her body was found more than two years later, and among her possessions was a journal
(CNN)Geraldine Largay knew she was so very lost that the chances of her making it out of the thick Maine woods were gone.
She had been writing in her journal every day and one of her final entries showed she was resigned to her fate.
"When
you find my body please call my husband George and my daughter Kerry.
It will be the greatest kindness for them to know that I am dead and
where you found me -- no matter how many years from now. Please find it
in your heart to mail the contents of this bag to one of them."
It was August 6, 2013, about 15 days after she left the Appalachian Trail to use the bathroom.
Her body was found more than two years later, in a sleeping bag inside a zipped up tent.
Investigators
this week released documents and photos related to the case. Texts and
journal entries reveal Largay, 66, was alive for almost a month after
she went missing.
Largay tried on
July 22 to text her husband, who was meeting her at certain points along
the almost 2,200-mile long trail, to get help from the Appalachian
Mountain Club.
"In somm trouble.
Got off trail to go to br. Now lost. Can u call AMC to c if a trail
maintainer can help me. Somewhere north of woods road. Xox," she wrote.
But
the text didn't go through. She walked west and kept trying to send the
message. Ten more attempts, the last one at 12:25 p.m.
She tried to send a blank message two hours later. It didn't go through.
She
tried another message the next day, writing, "Lost since yesterday. Off
trail 3 or 4 miles. Call police for what to do pls. Xox." It also
failed and she tried one more time to no avail.
By
this time, Largay had set up her tent nearly 2 miles from the trail.
She had some food, water and her camping supplies. And a journal that
she wrote in each day.
One of the Maine wardens who compiled the evidence wrote that Largay's writings were personal letters to her family.
There were entries through August 10 then nothing until the 18th. It was the last entry, 27 days after she got lost.
A forester on contract with the U.S. Navy found her campsite on October 11, 2015.
Two-year mystery
The
Brentwood, Tennessee, resident, whose trail name was "Inchworm" due to
her slow pace, started her journey in April 2013 at Harpers Ferry, West
Virginia.
She was last seen on
July 22 where she talked with two women at a lean-to, a sheltered
stopping point. She planned to hike 8.4 miles north that day and then
continue the next day to a point where the trail crossed a road. Her
husband was to meet her there, but she never showed.
Hundreds
of people and several dogs searched for her. There were few clues; she
was last seen by two hikers, and her cell phone pinged a tower the
afternoon she got lost.
Authorities said she died from starvation and exposure.
According
to the more than 1,500 pages of documents, Largay was in good health
and was an experienced hiker. She had traveled with a good friend, Jane
Lee, until June 30, when Lee had to go home for a family emergency.
Lee
told investigators that she was concerned about Largay hiking alone.
Largay had a poor sense of direction and several times had taken a wrong
turn. Once, Lee, who was a faster hiker and would sometimes go ahead
then wait for her companion, said she had to double back and find
Largay. The elder hiker had been walking the wrong direction until
someone helped her get oriented.
One investigator wrote in 2013 that Lee told him Largay was in over her head trying to complete the rest of the trek solo.
CNN attempted Thursday to call a representative for the Largay family but was unsuccessful.
More phone traffic
The
text of July 23 wasn't the last Largay tried to send. There were also
messages on the afternoon of July 30. And two texts were deleted on
August 6, the same date of her hopeless journal entry.
It was unclear from the report whether Largay ever tried to call anyone herself.
Her husband told wardens that Gerry Largay used her cell phone sparingly, depending on the circumstances.
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