The Maine Warden Service is still searching for Geraldine “Gerry” Largay. Her trail name is “Inchworm”. Inchworm is a northbound hiker on the Appalachian Trail. She was last seen on Monday, July 22, 2013 at about 3:30 p.m. Inchworm was ascending Lone Mountain at that time. Her likely destination was the Spaulding mountain lean-to, where she was planning to spend Monday night.

The Maine Warden Service is seeking to talk with any person that spent Monday night, July 22, 2013 at the Spaulding Mountain lean to. If you have any knowledge of any hiker or are a hiker that spend Monday night (7-22-13) at Spaulding mountain Lean-to please call 207-624-7076.

My wife worked with her husband. I was asked to post this on any message boards I may know. Please do not contact me, the poster, with any information. Contact the Maine authorities directly instead. Thanks.

Additional info and photo of the missing woman here:

http://www.kjonline.com/news/Over-rugge ... hiker.html

Hoping for the best..
Have you tried viewsfromthetop.com ?

Weird story. Have you ever read "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" by Stephen King? Yes, fiction of course but some similarities. Odd that she was supposedly very experienced but obviously is well off the trail some place. Hope she is found.

There's been a lot of Internet speculation about this SOBO hiker angle, but I haven't seen any reliable information about the content of the call to the motel. The idea that she "report[ed] that Inchworm was overdue" does not seem to be supported. But given that Inchworm had been overdue since the 22nd, it's hardly inconceivable that the SOBO heard a rumor of this by the 24th and would seek to contact the husband.

The SOBO knew Inchworm was late because Inchworm was already late when she met the SOBO. As to knowing she was *still* missing, we don't know whether she knew that. We have a phone conversation between the SOBO and some motel staff, as reported to a warden, as relayed to a reporter. I'd be very cautious about taking that report too literally.

But assume the SOBO got to Stratton on the 24th. Inchworm had been missing for two days. Is it so hard to believe that a rumor of this wouldn't have reached Stratton by then?

The thing we can conclude about the phone records is, either the police don't have results yet, or they're choosing not to share the results. There would be two separate queries: 1) tower-based location data for the time and place where Inchworm went missing (if her phone was on, you could get a rough fix of her position; any other phones in the area would be nice to know about too); 2) business records of what phone number called the motel at a precise time. For the latter, a pay phone might make a cold trail, but so could a prepaid cell phone if it was then turned off or the SOBO moved out of range.

Catamount wrote:

nartreb wrote:
But assume the SOBO got to Stratton on the 24th. Inchworm had been missing for two days. Is it so hard to believe that a rumor of this wouldn't have reached Stratton by then?

Rangeley.

But OK, I'm not ready to convict SOBO of anything. I'm just saying things as reported aren't adding up. Not even close. The media getting the facts wrong is certainly a real possibility. But assuming the reported facts are even 75-percent accurate, SOBO needs to be located and she needs to be questioned. Maine authorities seem to agree with this assessment. In the meantime, scour the woods and hope you find Inchworm alive.

As for the police and cell phone records, you have a direct quote that they have worked with national cell phone experts and dead-ended. They wouldn't lie about that. In my prior life as a cop, I pinged a few phones. In exigent circumstances with a regular carrier, it's just a matter of making some phone calls and filling out some paperwork and you can zero right in on the phone. Quickly.

I doubt that cell phone location info is at all as accurate as the TV cop shows would have us believe. They can tell what cell phone tower the phone would be using if a call were made and they can tell what sector of that tower's coverage it would be in. That can give you a fairly good location in an urban area, but I doubt it would do a whole lot of good out in the sticks where the towers are much farther apart. Of course, if the cell phone is one of those fancy new ones that has a GPS receiver built into it, they can get a much better location.

Some times people go missing because they don't want to be found. Seems very odd to do it in the middle of a long hike, but you never know....

Florida Frank wrote:Some times people go missing because they don't want to be found. Seems very odd to do it in the middle of a long hike, but you never know....

A long hike can give you time to think about things. The long time alone can probably cloud your judgment; you probably forget many of the familiar things that are in your life when you are not hiking.

Seems like the mystery woman might have been Inchworm herself; they didn't really discuss that possibility. Great article, though.

I grew up in the Appalachians in VA. Seems like someone "vanishes without a trace" nearly every year on some portion of the AT. Sucks, but a trail that gets that much use is going to have someone end up as a statistic. Terrible for her friends and family, and I hope it works out that she just got desperately turned around.....

I didn't realize that she was a Bigfoot.

There was a good program on the other night about this. The "Animal Planet" cable TV network has a program about Maine game wardens and one of their episodes dealt solely with the search for this lost hiker.