Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire There are some holes in this lost woman's story

I thought she just left it behind? I missed where she actived it....

From all ive seen here, it just looks like she was pure stupid.

She had to go potty.

Surprisingly enough people that think the world is a dangerous miserable place where it pays to minimise risk and that they are responsible for their own safety and security...are a minority.


That said, it is a miserable end and I wish the remaining family well.

I got the idea that they'd found it because it was activated. Maybe I got it wrong. But, that would lead to an even bigger question - if she had it but didn't activate it, why not? Her situation is exactly what it's for.

... assuming you have a GPS receiver. Many do not feel the need nor want the cost of a receiver. I was involved with the development and implementation of GPS land navigation in the 1980's and do not own a receiver. I've just never felt the need; a compass (used as a USFS Smokejumper 53 years ago) suffices for my needs.

She paid a horrific price to go potty!

The sky was not cloudy for 26 days. If you went out without basic orienteering skills and a compass and map you lack common sense.

That goes for people who rely on GPS too, look, chit breaks and batteries die. A compass will last for several life times.

For whatever unfathomable reason, she wanted to die, and picked her way to go.

It sounds to me like she was in way over her head as far as having any survival skills. So she did what she had been told--which is when you're lost just stay put until someone finds you. Not a bad plan really.

I just don't see how someone starves to death in 26 days. Even without food, it would be rare to starve out in that time. Also, a desperately hungry person usually starts finding something to eat in the woods, even it were only crickets and worms and such.

And no sign of a fire? Why wouldn't even the most ignorant person light up a fire and try to smoke in some help?

When I read this story this morning, I smelled a rat. I think this gal wanted to die.
She didn't want it to look like suicide so she set it up to look like she was just lost in the woods and died by the cruelties of nature.

I think she committed suicide. Probably took a dozen Vicodin and two glasses of red wine, and laid down and never woke up. As far back in the woods as she was, she knew they could never do forensic testing to find the dope or booze.
I feel sorry for the guys who found her rotten skeleton, that is one image they will never get out of their minds.

This is interesting to me. Maybe it's because I'm old, I don't know. To find a rotten skeleton would not bother me at all, except my concern for the family who lost a loved one.

Some folks just shouldnt be in the woods. Shes one of em. Hell, hunters get lost every year here in northern PA. Ill never understand it. Walk the ridges and eventually youll get your bearings. Get in the hollows or follow a stream youll end up 10 miles away or walk in circles.

I don't think it was a suicide. She was supposed to be with another person and they ducked out at the last minute. Plus she tried to send failed text messages asking for help.

I think it was just a simple case of a city person being in the woods. I think it would surprise most outdoorsman how naive city people can be when it comes to the woods.

And quite frankly, being a woman might have had something to do with it. Their brains just don't work in a way that would be useful in such a situation. Some of the questions my girlfriend has asked me over the years make me wonder if she'd make it out or not in a similar situation.

Shut the fugg up Larry. Woods are plenty safe if you know what you're doing.

Maybe YOU shouldn't go out in the woods alone, but the rest of us adults can.

THIS !!!
There is nowhere in the Pecos Wilderness (~ 222K acres) I could not walk out of in 3 days, max - going slowly enough to not hurt myself (sprain, broken leg, etc.)

A pretty good story here.....

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

...And this guy hiked this section of the trail, here's his blog complete with photos and map....

http://sectionhiker.com/section-hike-stratton-to-rangeley-on-the-maine-appalachian-trail/

The lady was on anti-anxiety meds and had no sense of direction. Most likely couldn't read a contour map either like any one of us could have to navigate even without a compass.

One gets the sense that, without a clear trail to follow, this lady was absolutely clueless in the woods. In hindsight this was a train wreck bound to happen once the trail got vague and the woods thick.

Still, this particular example of stupidity shouldn't have been a capital offense. All she endangered was herself.

I do feel sadness for her husband of 44 years, no mention of any kids. He had been her chase vehicle the whole way. I'll bet he was as clueless as she was.

Birdwatcher

I have hiked parts of the AT in NJ,NY & PA and have hunted the big woods of ME's Aroostook County. I know haw vague the trail can become in certain areas and have had a hunting partner get disoriented in the ME woods. So I can understand the situation, the surprising part to me is that the Warden Service's search failed to find her when she was only 1K yards off the trail. I would have thought the search would've extended that far to either side of the trail in the vicinity of her last known location. How her tent escaped detection by searchers in the air and on the ground is pretty puzzling too. There's more to the story especially since evidence seems to show she made little or no effort to extricate herself from her predicament. The BR story sounds really suspicious, I've never lost sight of the trail when I've had to answer nature's call.

That was one expensive [bleep].

Talk to anyone that has done the AT and they all say that New England in general and New Hampshire and Maine in particular aren't for the faint of heart.

No idea if it's possible to tell postmortem, especially given the reported condition of her remains, but at her age maybe she suffered from some level of dementia.