WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.120 --> 00:00:03.120 Now, the Appalachian Mountains, which we've just been talking about, 2 00:00:03.640 --> 00:00:06.759 they have a way of making you feel incredibly small. 3 00:00:07.320 --> 00:00:09.880 When you stand deep in the Great Smoky Mountains, for example, 4 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:13.279 surrounded for those ancient towering hemlocks, in the thick blue 5 00:00:13.279 --> 00:00:15.480 gray mists that seems to bleed right out of the soil, 6 00:00:16.239 --> 00:00:19.679 you realize very quickly that you're just a visitor in 7 00:00:19.719 --> 00:00:23.960 a very old, very indifferent world. The locals who've lived 8 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:26.960 in those hollers for generations have a deep respect to 9 00:00:27.039 --> 00:00:30.519 the woods. They know the folklore, They know the old 10 00:00:30.559 --> 00:00:33.840 stories about how the forest can sometimes go dead quiet, 11 00:00:34.359 --> 00:00:36.920 a phenomenon where the birds stops singing and the wind 12 00:00:36.960 --> 00:00:40.359 stops blowing, right before the mountains decide to open up 13 00:00:40.359 --> 00:00:44.159 and sometimes swallow someone whole. Most of the time, though, 14 00:00:44.280 --> 00:00:46.840 we write those stories off as spooky camp for our 15 00:00:46.880 --> 00:00:49.799 tales meant to keep children from wandering too far from 16 00:00:49.840 --> 00:00:53.439 the porch. But every once in a while a case 17 00:00:53.520 --> 00:00:56.560 comes along that strips away the comfort of logic, a 18 00:00:56.640 --> 00:01:00.000 case that proves sometimes people really do just step up 19 00:01:00.079 --> 00:01:03.119 off the edge of the world. The vanishing of sixteen 20 00:01:03.200 --> 00:01:06.079 year old trendy Lynn Gibson is one of those cases. 21 00:01:06.959 --> 00:01:10.879 It was a perfect autumn day, Friday, October eighth, nineteen 22 00:01:10.920 --> 00:01:15.040 seventy six. The air in Knoxville, Tennessee, my hometown, was 23 00:01:15.120 --> 00:01:17.879 crisp and cool, hitting at the deep autumn chill that 24 00:01:17.959 --> 00:01:20.640 was just around the corner. Troney was a junior at 25 00:01:20.719 --> 00:01:23.920 Bearden High School. She was a quiet, bright girl with 26 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:26.680 an interest in agriculture, which is why she was on 27 00:01:26.719 --> 00:01:29.480 a school bus that morning headed toward the Great Smoky 28 00:01:29.480 --> 00:01:32.920 Mountains National Park with about forty of her classmates for 29 00:01:33.040 --> 00:01:36.439 a horticulture field trip. The plan for the day was 30 00:01:36.480 --> 00:01:40.319 pretty straightforward. The bus parked at the Klingman's Dome parking lot, 31 00:01:40.560 --> 00:01:43.599 the highest peak in the park. From there, the students 32 00:01:43.599 --> 00:01:45.599 were to hike the one point eight mile trail down 33 00:01:45.680 --> 00:01:49.159 to Andrew's Bald, which is a sprawling open meadow offering 34 00:01:49.200 --> 00:01:53.000 stunning panoramic views of the ancient mountain range. They would 35 00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:56.480 eat lunch, examine the local plant life, and then hike 36 00:01:56.560 --> 00:01:58.840 the one point eight miles back up to steep incline 37 00:01:58.879 --> 00:02:02.959 to the bus. Now, it's important to understand the geography 38 00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:06.480 of this specific trail. The path to Andrew's Ball does 39 00:02:06.519 --> 00:02:10.360 not a leisurely paved stroll through a city park. It's rugged, 40 00:02:10.840 --> 00:02:14.719 it's steep, rocky, and tightly flanked on both sides by dense, 41 00:02:14.960 --> 00:02:19.800 unforgiving Appalachian underbrush, deck tangles of rhododendron and Mount Laurel 42 00:02:20.080 --> 00:02:23.120 that you practically need a machete to hack through. In 43 00:02:23.159 --> 00:02:26.199 many places, the trail is narrow enough that hikers have 44 00:02:26.280 --> 00:02:29.039 to walk single file. Now that gives you a better idea. 45 00:02:30.159 --> 00:02:33.759 So when these forty teenagers hit the trail, they naturally 46 00:02:33.800 --> 00:02:36.879 broke into smaller, fragmented groups, little clicks, if you will. 47 00:02:37.400 --> 00:02:40.520 Some of the athletic kids practically ran ahead, eager to 48 00:02:40.520 --> 00:02:44.039 reach the meadow. Others lingered behind, chatting and taking their 49 00:02:44.080 --> 00:02:46.960 own sweet time. Treny was right in the middle of 50 00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:50.680 the pack. As the afternoon wore on, the group began 51 00:02:50.759 --> 00:02:54.360 the grueling uphill track back toward the Klingman's Dome parking lot. 52 00:02:54.639 --> 00:02:58.120 It was roughly three pm. Triny had been walking and 53 00:02:58.159 --> 00:03:01.960 talking with a classmate named Robert. Now, according to Robert, 54 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:04.639 he stopped for a moment, and Triny kept walking ahead 55 00:03:04.639 --> 00:03:07.960 of him. Now she wasn't alone in the wilderness. She 56 00:03:08.080 --> 00:03:11.439 was sandwiched between two groups of her peers. There were 57 00:03:11.479 --> 00:03:14.199 students just a few dozen yards ahead of her, and 58 00:03:14.280 --> 00:03:16.960 Robert and several other students just a few dozen yards 59 00:03:17.039 --> 00:03:20.680 behind her. As Treny walked the trail, took a sharp 60 00:03:20.719 --> 00:03:24.840 steep bend around a rocky outcropping, obscuring her from Robert's view. 61 00:03:25.800 --> 00:03:28.960 It was a blind spot that lasted at most, probably 62 00:03:29.000 --> 00:03:32.560 fifteen to twenty seconds. When Robert and the group behind 63 00:03:32.599 --> 00:03:35.919 him rounded the exact same bend moments later, they expected 64 00:03:35.960 --> 00:03:38.000 to see Trenny's back just ahead of them on the 65 00:03:38.080 --> 00:03:42.680 narrow dirt path, but the trail was empty now. They 66 00:03:42.680 --> 00:03:46.800 didn't panic immediately. They assumed what anyone would assume. Trienny 67 00:03:46.800 --> 00:03:48.840 had simply picked up her pace and caught up with 68 00:03:48.879 --> 00:03:51.879 a group of students walking ahead of them. They kept 69 00:03:51.960 --> 00:03:54.599 hiking all the way up to the parking lot, expecting 70 00:03:54.639 --> 00:03:56.639 to see her sitting on the bump of the school bus, 71 00:03:56.879 --> 00:04:00.360 tired and ready to go home. But when the teachers 72 00:04:00.400 --> 00:04:03.319 gathered the students and began doing the final headcount before 73 00:04:03.319 --> 00:04:07.759 boarding the bus, the horrible reality set in. Twenty wasn't 74 00:04:07.759 --> 00:04:10.800 on the bus, She wasn't in the parking lot. The 75 00:04:10.840 --> 00:04:12.840 students who had been hiking ahead of her said they'd 76 00:04:12.879 --> 00:04:15.680 never seen her catch up to them. The students behind 77 00:04:15.680 --> 00:04:18.720 her said she had vanished around the bend in the 78 00:04:18.759 --> 00:04:23.040 span of perhaps fifteen seconds, while bracketed by forty people 79 00:04:23.079 --> 00:04:26.560 on a razor tin mountain trail. Trinny Lynn Gibson had 80 00:04:26.600 --> 00:04:31.560 completely ceased to exist. Now, The teachers immediately backtracked down 81 00:04:31.560 --> 00:04:35.879 the trail, calling her name. The woods remained totally, terrifyingly silent. 82 00:04:36.319 --> 00:04:40.240 There was no answer. By nightfall, park rangers had been 83 00:04:40.240 --> 00:04:44.360 alerted and a massive frantic search operation was underway. And 84 00:04:44.399 --> 00:04:47.800 this is where the sheer impossibility of Trenny's disappearance truly 85 00:04:47.839 --> 00:04:51.680 takes hold. When someone gets lost in the woods, they'd 86 00:04:51.759 --> 00:04:54.959 leave a signature. If a hiker simply steps off the 87 00:04:54.959 --> 00:04:58.680 trail to relieve themselves and gets disoriented, they leave footprints 88 00:04:58.680 --> 00:05:02.120 in the soft earth. They snapped twigs, they drop maybe 89 00:05:02.120 --> 00:05:04.759 a comb, a candy wrapper, or even a piece of jewelry. 90 00:05:05.360 --> 00:05:08.000 If they panic and run, they leave an even larger 91 00:05:08.120 --> 00:05:13.560 chaotic trail of disturbed brush. Searchers, tracking dogs and helicopters 92 00:05:13.759 --> 00:05:16.519 scoured the steep drop offs and dense thickets surrounding that 93 00:05:16.600 --> 00:05:20.040 specific bend in the trail. The dogs were given articles 94 00:05:20.040 --> 00:05:23.800 of Trenny's clothing descent. But the hounds, they just spun 95 00:05:23.839 --> 00:05:26.560 in circles. They were entirely unable to pick up a 96 00:05:26.560 --> 00:05:29.480 trail leading off into the woods. It was as if 97 00:05:29.519 --> 00:05:33.199 Triny had been plucked straight up into the sky. And 98 00:05:33.240 --> 00:05:37.199 then there was a deeply unsettling issue of sound. The 99 00:05:37.240 --> 00:05:40.399 Great Smoky Mountains are home to black bears and wild boars, 100 00:05:41.040 --> 00:05:44.399 but an animal attack is not a silent event. It's 101 00:05:44.439 --> 00:05:48.519 a violent, chaotic and incredibly loud struggle. If a predator 102 00:05:48.560 --> 00:05:50.639 had ambushed a sixteen year old girl just a few 103 00:05:50.680 --> 00:05:53.800 yards away from other hikers, someone would have heard a scream, 104 00:05:54.439 --> 00:05:57.800 someone would have heard thrashing of bushes. Searchers would have 105 00:05:57.800 --> 00:06:02.000 found torn clothing, forensic evidence, drag marks, but absolutely none 106 00:06:02.040 --> 00:06:06.519 of that was found. What about an abduction. Now this 107 00:06:06.600 --> 00:06:10.120 is the darkest, most terrifying theory, but practically it makes 108 00:06:10.120 --> 00:06:13.560 the least amount of sense. How does the predator, say, 109 00:06:13.560 --> 00:06:16.839 a stranger hiding in the woods, silently grab a teenager 110 00:06:16.959 --> 00:06:20.800 off a crowded trail in broad daylight. The logistics are 111 00:06:20.879 --> 00:06:24.120 almost impossible. The kidnapper would have had to wait in 112 00:06:24.160 --> 00:06:27.600 the dense thorny brush perfectly time the fifteen second window 113 00:06:27.639 --> 00:06:30.279 when she was out of sight from both groups, subdue 114 00:06:30.279 --> 00:06:33.160 her instantly without her making a single sound, and then 115 00:06:33.240 --> 00:06:35.959 carry her up or down a nearly vertical, heavily wooded 116 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:40.160 embankment without snapping a branch or leaving a footprint, And 117 00:06:40.199 --> 00:06:42.720 they would have had to do all this while dozens 118 00:06:42.720 --> 00:06:47.199 of her classmates were within airshot. As the days turned 119 00:06:47.240 --> 00:06:51.399 into weeks, the brutal Appalachian weather set in heavy rains 120 00:06:51.399 --> 00:06:54.839 and dense fogs severely hampered the search efforts, washing away 121 00:06:55.000 --> 00:06:59.639 whatever microscopic clothes might have been left behind. The search 122 00:06:59.800 --> 00:07:03.399 was eventually sadly scaled back and then called off entirely. 123 00:07:03.879 --> 00:07:08.040 Trinny Lynn Gibson was gone. Decades have passed since that 124 00:07:08.160 --> 00:07:11.879 chrisp October afternoon in nineteen seventy six, and no trace 125 00:07:11.959 --> 00:07:15.920 of no clothing, no backpack, no remains has ever been 126 00:07:15.959 --> 00:07:20.160 recovered from the Great Smoky Mountains. The human mind desperately 127 00:07:20.160 --> 00:07:23.839 wants to apply logic to tragedy. We want to believe 128 00:07:23.879 --> 00:07:27.120 that she simply slipped down a hidden ravine without a terrible, 129 00:07:27.360 --> 00:07:31.360 silent accident befilled the poor girl. But when you look 130 00:07:31.399 --> 00:07:35.120 at the facts, the narrow window of time, the proximity 131 00:07:35.120 --> 00:07:38.240 of her classmates, the absolute lack of any physical or 132 00:07:38.240 --> 00:07:42.279 forensic evidence, and the total silence of her vanishing logic 133 00:07:42.439 --> 00:07:46.120 just simply falls apart. It leaves you with nothing but 134 00:07:46.240 --> 00:07:49.519 the chilling realization that those old mountain legends might carry 135 00:07:49.519 --> 00:07:54.279 a grain of truth. Sometimes the woods go quiet, and sometimes, 136 00:07:54.360 --> 00:07:58.160 for reasons we'll never understand, the mountains seem to just 137 00:07:58.240 --> 00:08:01.240 take someone and then never give them back.