Episode 105: Missing and Murdered in the High Country

My family recently returned from a vacation in the High Country area of North Carolina. The High Country includes a wide array of places such as Beech Mountain, Boone, Blowing Rock, Linville Falls, West Jefferson, Sparta, Wilkesboro. We had a fantastic time and made sure to fill our days with outdoor activities. We did a relaxing trip down the New River on inner tubes, visited Grandfather Mountain, and hiked several different local trails. My husband went to college in the area and was excited to show us some of his favorite spots. One of those spots was an area called Hebron Falls.

One of the ways you can access Hebron Falls is through Julian Price Memorial Park in Blowing Rock. It was while hiking into the falls (which we had kind of a hard time finding) that I slipped twice on mud and fell flat on my back, knocking the wind out of myself. Luckily, I was fine, but on any of these trails you run the risk of serious injury, no matter what your skill level, if you don’t take the appropriate precautions. When looking at information about this area on the website AllTrails, I found the following review:

We are a couple in our mid and late 60s who walk almost every day, usually around 3 miles. This trail was definitely not “easy” for us! Roots and rocks everywhere, and a fairly steep descent down to/climb back up from the falls, which we could barely see, way off in the distance at the top, beyond a bunch of huge boulders. The signage is not great, either. If you are wanting to do this particular trail, don’t go over a bridge to the right a little over a mile in; go to the left instead. We made a mistake here which added a mile to our trip. It was a great workout and we don’t regret doing it, but it was definitely moderate to hard for us, and given the sort of disappointing falls view, we will not do this one again.

I think this is a good example of how a planned hike can take an unexpected turn. You really never know what you’re going to find or how well-traveled or remote an area is.

Another place we hiked that’s more strenuous was Table Rock near the Linville Gorge Wilderness. We all consider ourselves to be in a good physical shape, but there were still areas where you had to really watch your footing on the steep incline and keep an eye out for muddy or slippery rocks and roots. Even the trek up to Grandfather Mountain (which you have the option to drive up to if you prefer) had a steep incline full of large boulders and areas that could become slick after rain. Visiting all these places, some for the first time, made me think of the new reports I often hear of people getting lost on the trails or suffering serious, and sometimes fatal, falls.

For example, in late October, 2021, a group of twenty-three hikers on a church outing got lost in the Linville Gorge. According to a report by the Linville Central Rescue Squad, the group had become separated and two members were able to hike out of the gorge and call for help. That evening, Burke County Emergency Medical Services joined forces with the Linville Rescue Squad and Mountain Rescue Team well into the night. When the group was found, none of the hikers were injured, but they were cold and hungry due to the late hour. They had gotten turned around at the bottom of Linville Gorge, and were not equipped with jackets or any warm clothing. Temperatures in the gorge had dropped into the high 30s and low 40s that evening. Rescuers set up a fire once they found the group, helped the hikers get warm, and offered them food.

The High Country Press reported on June 3, 2021 30-year-old hiker Michael Ryva of Forest Park Illinois, died after he fell approximately 80 feet into the gorge. He had been hocking on a trail called Rock Jock. He was found dead three hours after the Burke County Emergency Management officials received a call about an injured hiker. It took the rescue crews several hours to extricate him from the scene, as there had been pop-up thunderstorms on the Rock Jock Trail all throughout that day. The Rock Jock Trail is described as a rugged and remote 6-mile hike along Dogback Mountain in the Linville Gorge Wilderness. Just a few months prior, another hiker had died after a fall near the Babel Tower Trail in Linville Gorge.

The news outlet offered this accurate description of the area where so many visitors are prone to injury and unfortunately, as in this case death.

The Linville Gorge is part of the Pisgah National Forest. It’s formed by the Jonas Ridge on the East and Linville Mountain on the West, and is bisected by the Linville River, which drops 2,000 feet into the valleys below. The area is covered by a dense hardwood pine forest and a variety of smaller trees and plants.

In 2021, the North Carolina High Country experienced a record-number of visitors to the area, and the Linville Rescue Squad said it had broken records for the number of calls it responded to.

On Saturday, October 15, 2022, a hiker fell approximately 45 feet at the top of Hawksbill Mountain, about 105 miles northwest of Charlotte. It has an elevation of more than 4,000 feet and rises over the Linville Gorge. It’s considered a strenuous hike and has steep terrain and numerous rock formations, according to a description by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Burke County Emergency Medical Services were dispatched to the scene and discovered the hiker had lost a great deal of blood. But getting the patient to safety proved to be a difficult task. High winds at the top of the mountain made a helicopter extraction too dangerous.

Instead, the rescue team used ropes to set up a horizontal raise in order to bring the injured hiker back up to the top of the mountain. Mountain Area Medical Airlift, or MAMA for short, landed nearby at the Brown Mountain Overlook. Flight nurses hiked in whole blood as there were concerns the injured patient would need a transfusion before making the trip to the closest trauma center. The medical team on site determined they could make it out of the area without the transfusion.

Frances “Dell” Apperson

On May 17, 2022, a 67-year-old Charlotte resident named Frances “Dell” Collett Apperson left her home and drove to the Linville Gorge area of North Carolina. Frances was reported missing on May 21, 2022.

When local authorities pinged her cell phone, they were led to the discovery of her car off Old NC 105. The silver 2013 Hyundai Santa Fe, was found in a parking lot near a trail leading to Linville Falls on May 30, covered in pollen.

Frances had family living in the area, so they searched for her along the trail leading to the falls. The McDowell News reported on June 2, 2022 that they found a small angel along the trail leading to the falls. An identical angel was found in Frances’s car. At the time Tod Collett, Frances’s brother, told WSOC-TV that their family had hiked Hawksbill Mountain together before, but he wasn’t sure how familiar Frances was with Linville Falls. They also didn’t know why she would have planned to visit the area alone. Rescue crews from the Burke County Rescue Squad, the Burke County Sheriff’s Office, North Carolina Forest Service, and Burke County Emergency Management responded to the scene to aid in the search. They also used a drone to search secluded areas along the falls. When I was reading about Frances, I got confused because her case is still active in NamUS, but I found an obituary published for her in April of 2023.

I noticed a YouTube Channel called Ryan Finds Truth, which helps find missing people in the Southeastern United States was planning an upcoming search for Frances, so I reached out to him. Ryan, who works with his wife Jen, did confirm he recently visited the area with Vernon Shurtz to do additional searches in the area where Frances went missing. Her family did publish an obituary but would still like to find Frances’s remains in the event she had an accident or passed away while in the Linville Gorge area. They were able to meet up with Frances’s brother Todd while they were on site. Ryan said the channel plans to post videos of their search in the next few weeks, so I’ll post a link to that channel in the show notes for anyone interested.

From Frances’s obituary, I learned Frances had become deaf when she was only six weeks old. She attended the Clark School for the Deaf in North Hampton Massachusetts and later attended the North Carolina School for the Deaf in Morganton, North Carolina. She attended Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. and earned a degree in American History. She loved to garden, read, cook, and spend time with friends and family. She worked as a teacher’s aide before becoming a stay-at-home mother to her two daughters. Frances had a passion for volunteering and was active in local community service organizations.

When she went missing, Frances stood five feet two inches tall and weighed around 130 pounds. She had shoulder-length hair and brown eyes. Frances was deaf, and this could have prevented her hearing if anyone was calling out for her during the initial days of the search.

Missing While Foraging-Michael Shawn Hartley

Even people that live in this part of the state are not immune to the dangers of exploring it alone. The next missing person I want to tell you about grew up in the area he went missing in and had even worked in the tree and shrubbery industry for most of his life. On October 6, 2021, 48-year-old Avery County resident Michael Shawn Hartley met up with a friend in the town of Spruce Pine to dig ginseng. When it started to rain, he got separated from his friend, who decided to leave the area. Michael stayed. He was an avid outdoorsman and hunter.

On October 14, after not hearing from him, Michael’s family filed a missing person’s report in Avery County. Because the police in Avery County knew Michael was last known to have been seen in Mitchell County, they had authorities in Mitchell County request a court order from a local Superior Court Judge to pull Michael’s cell phone records. This took several days, but it allowed the police to pinpoint the last location of his phone. They began searching the watershed area of Spruce Pine and located Michael’s body in Beaver Creek, just a few miles where he had grown up. At the time the Mitchell County Chief Deputy said there was no indication of foul play in his death, nor were there any wounds to his body or signs of trauma.

Barry Hertel

On December 23, 2023, 71-year-old Barry Hertel of Elks Park went missing after driving to the local Lowe’s Home Improvement store in Banner Elk on an errand. When the retired truck driver who worked part-time at a local Lowe’s Foods grocery store didn’t return home, the Avery County Sheriff’s Office issued a Missing Endangered Alert for the man because he was likely suffering from a cognitive impairment. He had been driving a 2019 silver Subaru Forester. Three days later, officers responded to a call about a car in the river off NC 194 near Sam Eller Road. They found a partially submerged car and discovered the body of a man deceased inside. Officials later confirmed the man to be Barry Hertel. They investigated the incident as a single-vehicle car accident.

Justin Glenn Miller

On March 28, 2015, 30-year-old Justin Glenn Miller left the home of his parents on John Sparks Road in Bakersville, North Carolina. His mother was at home when he left, but she did not know where he was going or get a good look at the car that picked him up.

He had a cell phone with him, but when officials checked its location they couldn’t get accurate results because it was a pay-as-you-go phone. He didn’t have his wallet, or prescription medication he took for seizures and pain.

Justin has not been seen since and his family is still holding out hope he will return someday.

At the time he went missing, Justin stood five feet eleven inches tall and weighed approximately 230 pounds. He is a white male with brown hair and blue eyes. He had scars near his right eye from a debilitating car accident he was in that left him disabled. He was last seen wearing a hooded black denim coat, jeans, and brown work boots. Local search and rescue conducted a search of the woods all around the Miller home and beyond when he first went missing. I reached out to one of his sisters to verify the information in Justin’s case and she said they are still hoping for answers and have been devastating by his disappearance.

If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Justin Miller, you can contact the Mitchell County Sheriff’s Office at 828-688-3982.

The Murder of Lynn Gay Keene

This last case I want to talk about involves a resident of Linville Falls, Lynn Gay Keene, who was murdered because she trusted the wrong person. On July 30, 2021 Lynn’s daughter-in-law filed a missing persons report for the 70-year-old. Family told police they’d last seen her on June 14. The post office at Linville Falls said she had last picked up her mail on July 16. When law enforcement went to Lynn’s house to check on her, they found her home secured but no sign of her car.

In early August, they found that car, a 2000 Lincoln Town Car, abandoned in Cherokee, located about 104 miles away from Linville Falls. It was locked, but the keys were found underneath the driver’s seat. Lynn’s debit card and Social Security Card were also found inside. A witness told police he had seen a person with short gray hair sitting in the car earlier that morning. Working with the tribal police in Cherokee, investigators were able to find surveillance video that showed Lynn’s car being driven by a woman.

The next day, police secured the search warrants needed to enter Lynn’s home. They discovered blood evidence on the walls and ceiling of a bathroom. In the basement, they found a blue tarp held down by a large box. Underneath bags of concrete, they discovered the body of Lynn Keen encased in concrete. She was later identified by her dental records. An autopsy showed Lynn had died received blunt force trauma to her head, as well as strangulation with a belt.

The Caregiver Comes Under Suspicion

Lynn’s former caretaker, 53-year-old Elizabeth Carserino from Goose Creek, South Carolina. Elizabeth was a friend of Lynn’s family and was hired to help take care of Lynn after she injured herself during a fall and suffered a traumatic brain injury. But in June of 2021, Lynn had made the decision to fire Elizabeth. However, neighbors reported they had seen Elizabeth still living in Lynn’s home until late July.

According to news outlet WCNC Charlotte, During the time family members could not get a hold of Lynn, they had talked to Elizabeth, who told them a number of bizarre stories. She said after receiving a call from the Avery County Sheriff’s Office, she’d been ordered to return a cat and pet carrier to Lynn’s home. When she did that, she said a person she didn’t recognize took the items inside. She said Lynn had traveled to Louisiana at one point, returning with an unknown man and woman. Elizabeth called Lynn’s daughter-in-law on August 2, and said she was on vacation in Maggie Valley, 16 miles East of Cherokee. She said she was on her way back to Linville Falls to get Lynn’s banking information. Police finally caught up with Elizabeth Carserino on August 6, 2021.

She was charged with identity theft, larceny of a motor vehicle, financial card theft, and the murder of Lynn Keene. Another interesting fact in this case is that two 80-pound bags of concrete were found outside of Lynn’s home, leading police to believe Elizabeth had not acted alone. She was granted bail of $1.6 million. I have not seen any news of a plea deal or trial in this case, but I’ll keep you posted if I learn anything new.

Show Sources:

Frances Apperson

https://www.averyjournal.com/news/search-continues-in-linville-gorge-for-missing-woman/article_bd56a6a6-e444-11ec-8f88-e79a84e816d5.html