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Documents reveal hiker who disappeared along US trail survived for several weeks

A hiker in the US spent several weeks lost in the woods before she died of starvation and ex...
Newstalk
Newstalk

15.00 26 May 2016


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Documents reveal hiker who dis...

Documents reveal hiker who disappeared along US trail survived for several weeks

Newstalk
Newstalk

15.00 26 May 2016


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A hiker in the US spent several weeks lost in the woods before she died of starvation and exposure, according to journal notes she wrote during the ordeal.

Geraldine Largay (66) from Tennessee had been hiking along the Appalachian Trail in the state of Maine in July 2013 when she went missing. Her remains were discovered in October 2015, alongside the tent she is believed to have set up shortly after getting lost.

Documents released to US media outlets, including the Boston Globe, by Maine Game Warden Service reveal that Mrs Largay initially stepped off the main path to use the bathroom.

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In a text message to her husband - who she had been planning to meet further along the trail - she wrote: “In somm trouble. Got off trail to go to br. Now lost. Can u call [Appalachian Mountain Club] to c if a trail maintainer can help me. Somewhere north of woods road. XOX.”

Another message she wrote a day after the first suggested she had gone "off trail 3 or 4 miles". She also asked her husband to call the police. 

The text messages never delivered as there was no mobile phone signal in the area.

The documents also reveal Mrs Largay kept a journal throughout her time in the wilderness. The last message was dated August 18th - suggesting she may have survived for as long as 26 days. However, a report notes that investigators were unsure if that date was correct.

In an entry dated August 6th, she asked whoever found her body to contact her husband and daughter. She wrote: "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".


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