Tonya Maxwell

tmaxwell@citizen-times.com

ASHEVILLE - Some outdoor enthusiasts have added precautions following a sexual assault near the Blue Ridge Parkway, while others have taken to social media to criticize the National Park Service for taking nearly three weeks to describe an attack endured by a lone hiker.

That hiker, a 64-year-old woman walking with a service dog, was tied to a tree and sexually assaulted May 12 in a popular hiking spot not far from Craggy Gardens, located northeast of Asheville.

But the National Park Service, which is investigating the attack, did not disclose that it was a sexual assault or confirm that the woman was bound until June 1. Early reports that the woman was tied to a tree came from emergency radio traffic and first-responders who said they didn’t have the authority to speak for the record.

By the time of that disclosure, Rhonda Karg, an Asheville psychologist and hiker who typically takes to the forest in solo walks, opted to stop taking to trails alone.

She formed a small women’s hiking group and began carrying bear spray, but upon learning of the nature of the attack, she and many others took to Facebook to voice anger against investigating officials and later said the National Park Service had been irresponsible in failing to inform the public.

“Sexual assault has a devastating effect on people,” said Karg, who often works with survivors. “There are just a lot of questions and secrecy surrounding all of this and it’s leaving us unsettled.”

'Isolated incident' explained

Leesa Brandon, a spokesman for the Park Service, said the agency did not release details earlier as rangers weighed several factors.

“Since the first hours of this incident on May 12th and in the days since, we have carefully worked to balance the investigation of the crime, the well-being of the victim and the need to share information in the interest of public safety,” she wrote in an email.

In a press release issued the day after the assault, National Park Service officials wrote that “we do not have reason to believe this incident was anything other than an isolated event,” in phrasing that also has drawn widespread criticism.

That wording was intended to convey that investigators had checked with other law enforcement agencies and found no similar assaults, Brandon said.

In law enforcement parlance, an isolated incident more typically indicates that violence was targeted toward a specific person or group and danger to random victims is unlikely.

Following the assault, visitor facilities in the area also remained open, with little information provided by the Park Service, a decision that stands in contrast to a bear attack that occurred two days earlier about 70 miles due west of Craggy Gardens.

In that incident, a black bear bit a hiker sleeping in his tent in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, also under the jurisdiction of the Park Service.

Bear attacks are rare, but following that incident, officials closed the Spence Field Backcountry Shelter and issued a detailed press release that chronicled the events, cautioned hikers to carefully dispose of food waste and offered advice should a bear approach.

If backing away slowly and giving the animal room to pass fails, park officials recommend hikers stand their ground, look large and throw rocks or sticks. If attacked, hikers should fight the bear.

Hiking in groups and carrying bear spray are also sound precautions, according to that release, with further detailed information following in subsequent statements.

On May 13, a 400-pound male bear suspected in the attack was euthanized, while another was captured on May 20 and fitted with a GPS collar before being released.

When DNA samples from those animals were found not to have matched DNA from the attack, park officials issued another press release, describing the decision to euthanize the bear and explained how May and June are difficult months for the omnivores as berries, a critical food source, are not yet available.

While attacks perpetuated by bears and humans draw upon far different investigative and victim concerns, public safety is at issue in each and the Park Service has endured criticism for what many see as neglecting that interest in the Parkway assault.

Protection through information

The public has not been well-served, said Barbara Lohf of Biltmore Lake, who said she was distressed that information that the attack was a sexual assault was released weeks after the incident.

“It is very troublesome that the people of Asheville have not been told what happened after such a long time, but I do not know what people who were travelling the Blue Ridge Parkway were aware of, if anything,” she said. “The best way people can protect themselves is with information. Information has not been available in this circumstance.”

The evening after the assault on the hiker, Parkway officials released a possible suspect description, describing the man as unkempt, about 50 years old, with salt-and-pepper hair and facial hair partially grown in. He was believed to be wearing a light or faded gray short sleeve T-shirt, old or faded baggy blue pants and a dark pair of tennis shoes.

A sketch was released 11 days later, the same day it was composed, Brandon said. The time delay occurred because, “it took several days to compile a valid suspect sketch as the victim had to be willing and ready to meet with an available artist.”

With the release of that sketch came widespread social media interest, and in popular Facebook groups, a hiker described an odd encounter with a shirtless man who spewed profanities on the Mountains to Sea Trail near the North Carolina Arboretum.

The shirtless man looked like the rendering, the man wrote in his post.

The tip prompted a search in the area on May 25 by U.S. Marshals, who were looking for a fugitive who had skipped parole, as well as a Park Service ranger and a law enforcement officer with the U.S. Forest Service.

In an unrelated search, Buncombe County sheriff’s deputies were searching the same area for a man who had been reported missing, his car found nearby.

The fugitive was later arrested in Asheville’s Pritchard Park. The National Park Service said he did not appear to be connected to the sexual assault.

Investigators have received more than 100 leads in the assault case, Brandon said.

Rescuers with the Reems Creek Fire Department discovered the hiker after a 911 call from the friend of the woman. In that call, the friend said she initially received texts from the hiker describing changing hiking plans, but then got an emergency notification, though she could not discern the problem.

The hiker suffered from seizure-like conditions, she said, and might need medical help. Thirty-five minutes after that call, rescuers found the woman tied to a tree on a trail adjacent to Potato Field Gap, an area about a four-mile drive from the Craggy Gardens Visitor Center.

Much of that time was consumed driving to the scene, and the hiker was located only 13 minutes after officials arrived along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

She was taken to Mission Hospital, and was released that same day.

The Park Service has declined to release any other information on the extent of her injuries or how she was bound to the tree.

In the last five years, no assaults have been reported along the 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway, which draws more visitors than any other site overseen by the National Park Service.

Though Parkway assaults are rare, law enforcement officers with the National Park Service are experienced in investigating sexual assault cases, Brandon said.

Anyone who may have information believed to be of interest is asked to call National Park Service investigators at (888) 653-0009; by email at nps_isb@nps.gov; or on Facebook at @investigativeservicesnps.

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