A hiker who got lost on a remote part of Appalachian Trail in the U.S. sent several text messages appealing for help before she died.
Geraldine Largay, 66, disappeared in western Maine in July 2013 and her body wasn’t discovered until more than two years later, in October 2015.
Newly released papers show that she sent a number of text messages to her husband, but they failed to send due to the lack of signal.
She also kept a journal for 26 days, before leaving a final note asking for whoever found her body to call her husband and daughter to let them know she had died.
Fragments of these desperate messages have now been released in over 1,500 pages of documents relating to her case, after several media organisations requested them through the Freedom of Information Act, the Associated Press news agency reports.
Here are just a few of them:
Text message to her husband, 11:01, 22 July 2013:
In somm 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.
Text message to her husband, 16:18, 23 July 2013:
Lost since yesterday. Off trail 3 or 4 miles. Call police for what to do pls. XOX.
Note torn out from her journal, 06 August 2013:
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.
Largay had originally set out on a three-day hike with a friend, but her friend had to turn back early to deal with a family emergency – leaving her to trek on alone.
When she failed to turn up at a pre-arranged meeting point with her husband, he reported her missing the next day and search parties were deployed.
The Boston Globe reports that some rescuers passed within only 100yds of Geraldine, but did not manage to find her.
Sadly, she died of starvation and exposure three weeks after authorities gave up their search.
In her journal, she revealed that she became lost after venturing off the trail to find somewhere to relieve herself.
Following that she hiked around for 26 days trying to regain her bearings and attempting to find higher ground so she could call someone for help.
Her body was discovered by a forestry worker in October 2015 inside a collapsed tent, where she had tried to start a fire and had built a makeshift flag in an attempt to attract attention.
RIP Geraldine.
