A woman who vanished while on a hiking trip took the 'most disturbing photo in Appalachian Trail history.' American mum Gerry Largay's disappearance in 2013 left her loving family devastated.
The 66-year-old, from Brentwood, Tennessee, was snapped smiling before heading into the Maine countryside but went missing several hours after the picture was taken on July 22 nine years ago, reports the Daily Star.
Geraldine, known to her friends as 'Gerry' was an avid hiker and was in search of a new challenge after regularly trailing nature near her home. In the north east of the USA, the trail serves as the longest hiking only-footpath in the world, measuring over 2,000 miles.
It was said at around the 1000 miles mark, Gerry became lost and texted husband George to ask if someone could help.
The text read: “In some 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.”
Her husband launched an official hunt after not hearing from her for a day, with the party including search aircraft, state police, national park rangers and fire departments as the weeks went on.
The search was unsuccessful before a US naval officer found "human remains" in October 2015. Lieutenant Kevin Adam later told the Boston Globe: “I saw a flattened tent, with a green backpack outside of it and a human skull with what I believed to be a sleeping bag around it.
“I was 99% certain that this was Gerry Largay’s.”
Supplies were found including a notebook, the cover of which read: “George Please Read XOXO”. It was believed the woman could have survived for nearly 26 days waiting to be rescued. Maps, jackets and a homemade necklace were also found.
Gerry wrote in the notebook about she had ended up off the beaten path after taking some wrong turns and penned a heartbreaking message to her family in an entry on August 6. Her last entry was on August 18.
It read: “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.”
The hiker's camp was close to the main Appalachian trail, around two miles, and was said to be only a 30-minute walk to a “clear logging road" despite her position being in thick woodland.
Gerry's family wrote in a statement: “Gerry was doing exactly what she wanted to do.
“She'd hiked a thousand miles - after 200 miles of training hikes the year prior - and as the warden's report indicates, she was lucid and thinking of others, as always, until the end.”
TikToker Kyle O'Grady, a thru hiker shared the story on his profile, branding the final picture of Gerry as "the most disturbing photo in Appalachian Trail history".
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