Rangers confirm Parkway assault
Officials with the National Park Service continued to say little Tuesday about an investigation involving a woman found tied to a tree near a popular destination along the Blue Ridge Parkway.
The 64-year-old woman was released from Mission Hospital on Thursday evening after she was discovered early that afternoon in the area of Craggy Gardens, about 20 miles from Asheville and popular for its sweeping views. Her service dog was nearby.
Neal Labrie, chief ranger for the Blue Ridge Parkway, in an email confirmed Tuesday that an assault occurred and that the "information the [National Park Service] is going to release has been released."
Previously, in a pair of news releases, National Park Service officials described the incident as a “possible assault” and have offered a “possible suspect description.”
Much of the information that has been made available, including that the hiker was tied, has been released through local first responders, rather than the investigating federal agency. Those emergency workers also have released few details.
Late Friday, the National Park Service released a statement describing a possible suspect as a generally unkempt white male, 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.
The man may have smelled musty from going unwashed for several days, according to the release.
Leesa Brandon, spokeswoman for the National Park Service, said officials have not released further information “in an effort to balance the integrity of this ongoing investigation and the privacy of the people involved.”
“While there is an ongoing investigation and a suspect description was released, investigators involved also believed there was no additional threat to public safety and opened the area and all nearby visitor facilities,” she wrote in a Monday email.
The lack of information echoes a September 2011 assault in a remote but popular area of the Nantahala National Forest in Macon County. In the Wayah Bald area, a woman reported that she stopped her car to check on a man lying in the road. When she left her vehicle, the man threatened to kill her with a handgun and then raped her.
National Forest Service officials, who investigated that case, did not release a suspect description for five days after the assault. No suspect was identified in that case and an arrest was not made.
Rangers are asking anyone who might have seen suspicious activity in the Craggy Gardens area from noon to 4 p.m. Thursday to call an investigative tip line at 888-653-0009.