Case file · Anomaly hotspot
Trenny Gibson, Great Smoky Mountains
A 16-year-old Knoxville student vanished on a school field trip on the Andrews Bald trail on 8 October 1976.
1976 CE · 35.54, -83.49 · status: unexplained
The account
Trenny Lynn Gibson was one of about 40 Bearden High School horticulture students who hiked from Clingmans Dome toward Andrews Bald, with little supervision. She was last seen on the way back to the bus with a few classmates. Dogs reportedly picked up her scent on the trail and toward Forney Creek, but weeks of searching found nothing. A former police officer has since written a book arguing she was killed, though no one has been charged. The case remains open.
The sceptical view
The steep drainages off the trail are dense and easy to get lost in; both an accident and foul play remain possible on the evidence.
Connections in the atlas
- Disappearance of Dennis Martin
- Derek Lueking, Newfound Gap
- Thelma Pauline 'Polly' Melton, Deep Creek
- 'Missing 411' and Yosemite