Updated: July 30, 8:13 p.m.: The Maine Warden Service will continue search efforts this week. Due to limited professional SAR organization availability during weekdays, we have begun to organize an intensified search strategy with the expected upcoming weekend resources. We have received considerable support for volunteer search assistance and we appreciate it greatly. The logistical and physical challenges associated with this remote search area restrict our ability to use searchers without formal training provided by professional SAR organizations.
Both the Commissioner of the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and the Colonel of the Maine Warden Service will evaluate each coming day to determine the most appropriate direction in which to proceed and search for Geraldine Largay.
As we move forward, we will continue to field calls and investigates all leads. Wardens need help in finding the caller responsible for contacting the Stratton Motel on Wednesday, July 24 at approximately 5 p.m. The unidentified female caller made a statement regarding “inchworm” (Geraldine Largay’s trail name) being overdue in meeting with her husband George.
If you made that phone call or if you can help us contact the person that did, we urge you to call the Augusta Public Safety Dispatch center at (207) 624-7076 or 1-800-452-4664 (Maine only).
CARRABASSETT VALLEY – The Maine Warden Service continues to ask hikers that may have seen a Tennessee hiker, last seen more than a week ago, to contact them, as the search continues across a narrowed area.
Geraldine “Gerry” Largay, 66, of Brentwood, Tenn., began hiking the Appalachian Trail in April at Harpers Ferry, W.V, intending her final destination to be Maine’s Baxter State Park. Her husband, George Largay, had been tracking her progress and making a series of pre-arranged meetings in order to resupply her.
On Sunday, July 21, Gerry Largay departed the Appalachian Trail’s Route 4 crossing in Sandy River Plantation, near Rangeley. Later that day, she text-messaged her husband and told him she was on top of Saddleback Mountain, and that she intended to spend the night at the Poplar Ridge lean-to in Redington Township. Her last text-message to him came in the morning hours of Monday, July 22, indicating she was heading north on the trail. Her next stop would have been the Spaulding Mountain lean-to.
Gerry Largay, an experienced hiker, was prepared with supplies and had no previous incidents up to this point in her hike, her husband said. She is described as being 5-foot, 5-inches tall, weighing 115 pounds with brown hair and eyes. She was last seen wearing a black pullover shirt, tan pants, a blue hat, and a black and green backpack.
A variety of volunteer and state agency resources have been deployed since Friday, searching for Largay. Today, search efforts consisted of approximately 60 people, including the Maine Warden Service with one aircraft, the Civil Air Patrol, members of local-area, volunteer search and rescue teams and Maine Search and Rescue canines.
The search is now focused on a 14-mile section of the Appalachian Trail, running from Lone Mountain in Mt. Abram Township, north to the Route 27 trail crossing in Wyman Township. Wardens believe the area of highest probability is even smaller, consisting of a 9-mile section of the trail, running from Lone Mountain north to the Caribou Valley Road trail crossing.
Maine Warden Service Cpl. John MacDonald reiterated a request for hikers who might have stayed at or hiked past the Spaulding Mountain lean-to, from the evening of Monday, July 22 to the morning of Tuesday, July 24, to contact the authorities. They also continue to investigate a phone call made to the Stratton Motel on Wednesday, July 24 at approximately 5 p.m. The unidentified female caller made a statement regarding “inchworm,” Largay’s trail name, being overdue.
The warden service asks that the person who made that phone call, or anyone capable of helping the wardens contact the person that did, call the Augusta Public Safety Dispatch center at (207) 624-7076 or 1-800-452-4664 (Maine only).
I keep checking all the papers in hopes to read “Hiker Found Alive & Well” holding onto hope
I am following this story in all hopes that this hiker is found soon and is okay. Thank you to all the wonderful people, canines, horses, etc. out there looking for her. This is obviously a huge group effort by many caring people.
Hoping and praying she will be found and is alright! So many of us are feeling helpless. Keep up all the good work.
Praying for her safety and her husband.
Checking everyday with aniticipation of seeing “Found Alive!” Praying for the Geraldine and her family.
Prayers go out to all involved. Am soooooo praying for a happy ending to this story.
Ditto on Renee’s comment!
I also hope to see that she is found alive and well
Many prayers from people in the Atlanta, GA area are being lifted before the throne of grace for safety for Gerry and peace for her family. For all of you who pray, please join with those in Georgia to pray a hedge of protection around and an umbrella of protection over Gerry Largay. Thanks and God bless!
God forbid, but has anyone considered foul play? The hiker who made the call could have been incorrect, or deliberately misleading the authorities. It seems she [the caller] should have been found by now. So should Gerry! If I had been in the caller’s boots, I would have continued to be on the lookout for news of “Inch Worm” as I headed south. Thanks for all those helping to find her. It must be exhausting by now.
I too have wondered why the caller has not been found, but if she’s through-hiking southbound, she may not hear, and might not meet anyone coming north who had heard, of what is going on. Possible. Don’t want to leap to conclusions. I have worried because of the news story just a few days before she went missing, about a male hiker threatening other hikers right in that same area of the AT, I have not seen any follow-up on that, I certainly hope it is being investigated, that guy’s identity can’t be that hard to figure out, someone knows who he is. Interestingly, an unnamed “female hiker” reported him too. Hard to know what to think. Have to keep praying!
What is happening with the investigation? Why are there no follow-up news stories in any news services? Apart from “foul play”, I am surprised no one has suggested other theories about Gerry Largay’s disappearance. I wonder how it is that tracking dogs were not able to follow a scent.
I think that the coverage of this “search” as been adequately and quite well reported and covered by the Bulldog as well as other news outlets and sources out there that I tend to read every day
Depending on available resourses I think it’s preferable to have what ya got working the woods rather than at press conferences two or three times a day
Under these life and death circumstances, isn’t there a way for phone records to show the number of the person who made that phone call to the Stratton Motel?
I wonder if they set good tracking dogs go with her scent, like in bear hunting, and track the with a beacon. I do know that the terrain they are talking, other than the trail, is sketchy at best, and heavily wooded. There are a lot of deep crevaces that you really can’t get to, but one could have slipped and fallen into if too close to the edge so to look at the beauty of the land. I, too, heard there was a creepy man living up there in the woods threatening hikers and Gerry was alone. Could this be an Elizabeth Smart type of event?? I watch each day with anticipation of her being found alive. Every time I hear Life Fligt, I wonder if it is for Gerry. We are praying for Gerry. She is on everyone’s heart here.
The last update was on Tuesday. Any progress here? What is going on? Is the Blueberry Festival going to overshadow this search? Come on Bulldog, do your job and keep people abreast of this potentially tragic situation and how they can help. I am sure there is someone that will give reporters progress reports. There is no updates on this search on any news organization in the State of Maine at present.
Started AT @ rt 4 on eve of 07-25-2013, the State of Maine has put TREMENDOUS RESOURCES and $$$$ to find Gerry! They found me, many times met 10 dogs, and was buzzed by helocopter 5+ times.
It’s now August 13 – no news in a long time. Does the search contimue? I haven’t heard.Praying that she will be found alive and well.