Case file · Anomaly hotspot
Derek Lueking, Newfound Gap
A 24-year-old Louisville man left his car at Newfound Gap in March 2012 with a note reading 'Don't follow me' and was never found.
2012 CE · 35.61, -83.42 · status: unexplained
The account
Derek Lueking's family said he may have gone into the mountains to cope with his grandfather's death. His SUV was found at Newfound Gap on the Tennessee-North Carolina line, with the note inside. Park searches over the following weeks, run at the same time as a search for another missing man, found nothing that could be tied to him, and were scaled back. The Park Service's Investigative Services Branch still asks for information.
The sceptical view
The note suggests he left deliberately; the terrain around Newfound Gap is steep and heavily forested.
Connections in the atlas
- Disappearance of Dennis Martin
- Trenny Gibson, Great Smoky Mountains
- Thelma Pauline 'Polly' Melton, Deep Creek
- 'Missing 411' and Yosemite