Geraldine Largay, a 66-year-old American hiker, went missing while hiking in Maine, USA, in the summer of 2013. Her remains were not recovered until last year. On Wednesday, the Maine government released up to 1,500 pages of investigation files, revealing that after she was confirmed missing, she survived for at least 26 days. She even wrote in her diary that if her body was found, her husband and daughter must be notified.
The investigation files show that on July 24, 2013, Geraldine’s husband, George Largay, reported to authorities that his wife, who was hiking the Appalachian Trail, had gone missing. The Maine government immediately launched a large-scale search. It wasn’t until October 2015 that someone discovered Geraldine’s remains about 914 meters off the trail, in an area used by the U.S. Navy for survival skills training. A coroner determined that Geraldine died from exposure and starvation.
The investigation files also revealed that Largay kept a diary during her disappearance and wrote her final entry on August 18, 2013, showing that she survived for at least 26 days after being confirmed missing. In her diary, she wrote: “If you find my body, please notify my husband George and my daughter Ginnie.”