Geraldine Largay disappeared July 23, 2013. Remains Found October 2015, Redington township, Appalachian Trail, Maine

Revised April 2024

Geraldine “Gerry” Largay, 68, was a retired Air Force nurse who had hiked long trails near her home in Tennessee. Like many other avid hikers, she decided to tackle the challenge of the Appalachian Trail on a six-month thru-hike during the summer of 2013.

Initially, she hiked with a friend, Jane Lee, but later continued alone. She was last seen by fellow hikers on July 22, 2013, at the Poplar Ridge shelter on the trail. Then she vanished. 

On July 23, 2013, she became lost after leaving the trail to relieve herself and could not find her way back. Like Jessie Hoover, who vanished in 1983, she was in the 100-mile wilderness, a rugged, difficult-to-hike area where it is easy to get lost.

It took over two years for Gerry’s body to be located, and she had survived in the wilderness for 26 days before she sadly died. It is a tale of bad luck and misadventure on the Appalachian Trail.

The location of the body and camp was less than two miles from the Appalachian Trail, and the dense forest became open woods with good visibility after 60-70 yards. After another 25 minutes, there was a logging road. It was so close to civilization and safety, but it was not to be.

Gerry Largay’s Appalachian Trail adventure

Gerry had been walking the famous 2,200 miles (3,500 km) long Appalachian Trail from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine. By late July, she had walked over 1000 miles; her trail name was “Inchworm”.

She had been in constant contact with her husband, George, for small reunions and resupplies of food and essentials. She was due to meet George on the morning of July 23, as he had driven to the Route 27 Crossing, about a 22-mile hike away from the Poplar Ridge shelter. But Gerry never showed up, to George's surprise.

Gerry’s disappearance on the A.T.

Gerry tried to text her husband after she became lost on July 23, 2013. At about 11 a.m., she wrote, “In some trouble. Got off trail to go to br. Now lost. Can you call AMC to see if a trail maintainer can help me? Somewhere north of Woods Road. XOX.” Unfortunately, the text was never sent because of poor cell service in the area.

Geraldine then tried to find higher ground and attempted to send the text ten more times in the next hour and a half. She eventually decided to camp for the night as her efforts to contact George had failed.

The next day, July 24, she tried to text again, but her message was undelivered at 4:18 p.m.: “Lost since yesterday. Off-trail 3 or 4 miles. Call police for what to do, please. XOX.”

Gerry had somehow lost the GPS tracker that she had purchased before her thru-hike, which she had purchased sometime on the hike, perhaps leaving it in a hotel room or shelter.

The search operation for Geraldine Largay

The following day, July 24, George became very concerned and contacted the authorities to inform them that he believed Gerry was missing.

The warden service, which included search aircraft, state police, national park rangers, and fire departments, started the official search effort.

Unfortunately, bad weather hit the area at the time, with heavy rain, which didn't help the effort to track Geraldine. They searched side trails, interviewed hikers, and used canine teams to try to track a scent. But despite the large search, there was no sign of Geraldine whatsoever, and it seemed like the wilderness had swallowed her up.

Gerry’s initial trail companion, Jane Lee, who had hiked much of the trail with Largay before a personal emergency called her away, told wardens that her friend found navigation difficult with a map and compass and sometimes struggled to keep up.

The discovery of remains

In October 2015, over two years after she was reported missing, Geraldine's body was eventually found near the Redington Township, close to the Redington Stream, and it became apparent she had survived nearly a month in the wilderness before succumbing to the elements and lack of food. She waited in vain for a rescue team that never came. However, at least three K9 teams came to about 100 yards of the camp but failed to detect her.

The discovery of her camp was caught on camera by a crew filming the Animal Planet reality series “North Woods Law”. The body was found on land owned by the U.S. Navy in Redington, three miles away from where she was last seen. The Navy uses the area for its Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape program, which is inaccessible and remote.

What was amazing was that the remains were so close to civilization. Walking south from the campsite, the dense forest became open woods with good visibility after 60-70 yards, and after another 25 minutes, there was a clear logging road that led to lodging. What hadn’t Geraldine been found or hadn’t attempted to seek help instead of staying put in her makeshift camp?

When wardens arrived at the scene, they saw a flattened tent with a green backpack outside of it and a human skull with a sleeping bag around it. 

The campsite was difficult to see unless you were right next to it. It was in dense woodland, and the tent was under several large trees whose branches obstructed the sky. Gerry had built a bedding area out of small trees and pine needles to keep her tent out of the rain and tied a space blanket between branches to provide some cover. She had also clearly tried to set fires, as nearby trees had been charred black.

In the camp, they found maps, a rain jacket, a space blanket, string, Ziploc bags, a flashlight that still worked, a blue baseball cap, dental floss, and a homemade necklace with a white stone wrapped in string.

The journal at the camp

A journal found alongside her body reveals she survived until at least August 18th. It was titled  “George Please Read XOXO”. In it, Gerry explained that she had spent about two days wandering after a wrong turn across a stream and that she had tried to find ridges where she could find her bearings.

The Journal also contained a final request, dated August 6, 2013: "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." 

What happened to Geraldine Largay?

Wardens believed that Gerry went to higher ground to try to get a better cellular signal before making camp on a raised knoll. After nearly a month at camp, she finally died from lack of food and exposure.  

Because her remains were inside the tent, it seemed the sniffer dogs and cadaver dogs could not pick up on her scent despite being so close to her camp on several occasions. But since searchers were so close to Gerry's camp, it was a mystery that she failed to hear their activity and call for help. Perhaps by then, she was too exhausted, caused by hunger and thirst.

But it does seem a little baffling that Geraldine failed to find the nearby logging road and was undetected by the many search teams. The area in which she was located was a U.S. Navy training facility, which adds to the mystery.

Why did Gerry get so lost so quickly after leaving the trail briefly to relieve herself? The Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATV), tasked with maintaining the trails, reroutes several paths yearly after flooding events or as part of ecological restoration projects. When they cut a new path, there will be a junction where you will be on a new trail instead of the old one. They try to block it off with tree limbs and remove the old blazing by scratching it off the trees, but sometimes old faded blazes are still there, confusing hikers.

Geraldine’s disappearance and death is a sad story that underscores the dangers of solo hiking on the Appalachian Trail and the 100-mile wilderness area around Maine.

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Sources

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/26/hiker-who-went-missing-on-appalachian-trail-survived-26-days-before-dying

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/27/us/missing-hiker-geraldine-largay-appalachian-trail-maine.html

https://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2016/08/24/when-you-find-body-the-last-days-hiker-gerry-largay/DcaZf6RcojOTN2LNsOXm0K/story.html

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/4l3t6d/hiker_geraldine_largay_who_died_after/