TN - Gail Nowacki Palmgren, 44, Signal Mountain, 30 April 2011 - #2

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His "uh" pause just before saying "Gail" was his thinking he would say "wife" and then paused and corrected to "Gail."

His bit about having done everything, "No man, you are on administrative leave, the mother of your children is missing, you go everywhere you need to go with witnesses looking on and find her" (except I think you have a clue where she is).

The "yell if you hear us" (or however it was worded) might have to do with the proximity of where she is, i.e. Within yelling distance (someone keep an eye on someone moving something).

The ping, if a phone was in a plastic case protected from water, but under water, would it ping? If it floated to the surface, would it ping then?

Keeping a person's DL at the house, or taking it off of them and placing it back at the house could make a finding remains a little more difficult? Although this one makes no sense to me unless purse went in the house, and someone forced her to drive away without it.

Kinda odd, wife missing two days and you call 911 to report it instead of going down to the Sherfiff? Didn't want them to see your face maybe?

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2011/may/18/sightings-missing-signal-mountain-woman-uncomfirme/
The one article states: "Matthew Palmgren expressed concern about his wife's mental state, saying she accessed their financial assets and that the children's passports are missing, according to court documents."

Wife's mental state? I assess (edited :) financial assets all the time here, aside from that you would bet I would be all over it if I was finding hotel receipts... As for the children's passports, ah, okay so their passports were put elsewhere? Good enough, I protected my children's passports too, they were a pain to get and good for 10 years. Aside from that, they are good ID if needed. And, we don't know whether the children are in any foreign exchange type of programs or will be...

I would be particularly careful to take important paperwork and put it somewhere else if I thought I had an agressive drunken guy threatening to tear up my house and files, not saying that was the case, but a practical woman is NOT going to let stuff like that remain at risk anywhere for all manner of reason.

Eeeyeah, that makes her look kinda cuckoo... Silly lady, husband has hotel receipts, sees a car that someone else is seeing in the neighborhood too, appraises the assets, and she is nuts and paranoid? NOT! In fact, I find that kind of statement strung together (the one quoted above) as a looney statement in itself.

"He adds he was concerned his wife might try to take their children out of the country."

Yeah, she is going to fly (split to another country) with a passport and no DL, yeah right! That is the same practical lady who was assessing financial assets? Or who had the good sense to call 911 (after appearing with an unexplained black eye)?

PS. Confused, just wanted to let you know that I am very suspicious of MP in this, yup I am. Do I think that Gail walked on water? If she is a normal human, she had flaws, even as we all do. She may have even had a whole lot of them.

At the moment, however, MP appears to be in possession of everything and Gail appears to be uncharacteristically missing. Gail was scared...and I don't think it was paranoia, could have been, but I don't think so... Gail had a black eye and as a doctor did not explain it very well, if you sock yourself in the eye accidentally you usually have a good laugh about it and a story to tell, you don't usually divert in the fashion she appears to have diverted. You divert, however, to protect a husband for the family's sake, or so you don't get beat up worse later... Yeah, wouldn't necessarily want to do anything to munge a husband's job, which could be a bit fragile, particularly only 8 months on a new job? (didn't he get hired last July?)

Do I think maybe MP gave her that black eye? Do I think that she had a really good reason for calling 911? Yeah... But I am WAY willing to hear any balance, and if Gail shows up, I'm going to figure she split as she did because she sensed and was in real danger, not nuts. Do we really call 911 because voices are being raised? Or maybe Gail called because she was scared of herself and what she might do to MP?

"Hello 911, my husband is yelling at me and I'm yelling at him, could you please come intercede?" I'm shocked they didn't take one or the other away to the jail in the 911 situations, out here we were told that when there is a 911 because of a family issue, then someone is going to jail (my daughter in law ended up there, of course she tried to choke my granddaughter, she did put her first through a door, she cleared the dining table with her arm -- broken glass everywhere -- and tried to throw my 6'4" son through the plate glass window -- she had a little rage problem). My son begged the police just to settle her down, they said, "Someone has to go to jail" they noticed it was "she" who had the issue.

There is a woman missing, it happens to be the mother of this guy's children. People do more for strangers than this guy is doing for the woman who he would hope would stay in enough favor with him to be reasonable about a divorce. But maybe he isn't concerned about that now, because he knows there won't be a divorce.

Now then, I get that you have an opposing view...or thoughts, I look forward to your sharing and helping us to stay balanced and flipping things over.
 
BBM.. Me either...And I just read there is a "Gathering for Gail" set for Sat. at 4pm at Pruett's on Signal. And a search of woods, trails, neighborhoods set for Sun. 2-4pm

Why not an all day search for her on Saturday and Sunday?

I don't know why it wasn't the opposite. Having the vigil on Sunday afternoon or evening and the search for much of Saturday? This is Southern Baptist country...nothing but church and family for most on Sunday.
 
IMO a couple of things about the News Conference...

TwitCast: http://movie.twitcasting.tv/calliestarnes/movie/1606773

Audio wasn't great, but this is what I heard from the link above:

"So, for myself, we've done everything in our power to keep to finding Gail. We've hired a private investigator, we’ve continued to look, we're turning over everything we can."

- To me, it seemed like MP's style of delivery was more like that of someone giving a speech or presentation at a board meeting. Considering his job, I would think that he's given a few speeches over the years, so maybe that's just his style.

But as others have mentioned, the sudden switch from "myself" to "we've" and "we're", seemed strange. And actually somewhat self-serving. Almost as though justifying himself was a bullet point on his speech list. Thus, the start of "So, for myself" and then the switch to "we've" and "we're".

IMO, that wording seems to make it appear as though he is united with Gail's family in the desire to find her. It also makes me wonder if he has done all of those things he preceded with "we've" and "we're", or if he chose to use that wording because he himself hasn't done all of those things.

Also, I think he said "Gail if you hear us" instead of "yell if you hear us".

http://www.wrcbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=14661367

- In the news video that shows what appears to be the BOLO going out for Gail, it's for a Missing ENDANGERED Party (about 00:57 mark). I have to wonder if that's because of MP's statements about her mental health, or because of something else.

bolded by me.

With regard to the bolded part, thanks for your input on this, I think you may be right.

Another of his statements at the PC sticks in my mind. What does he mean by "we're turning everything over we can". Does he mean "we're leaving no stone unturned" as in Scotland Yard's motto--or does he refer to turning items over to LE as requested??? If he means he is turning items over to LE, why would he even mention it ? (Unless it's another attempt to portray himself as cooperative and innocent).
 
Has anyone considered that she might have either,
1) left with someone that she wanted to leave with, or
2) met someone that had already been planned?

Just wondering and sorry if this has been discussed before.

IDK, possible, but what I think is odd is the fact she gave SB items to hold and then totally blows her off when she was leaving. ???? To me it could have been a sign that she was indeed "captive" OR maybe SB told hubby or other neighbors about it and it got back to hubby and GP was pizzed. ???
 
Cool, the Southern Baptist like scripture and evangelism I understand... Send this scripture to all of the churches:

Luke 15:4 What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?

Ask them if they might call their prayer circle and put the word out that we have a lost person, this would be a perfect time for them to dawn their Church sweatshirt, or cap, and report quietly for duty of those directing the search. Silent action, great way to share the love! :) I'm betting they would be all over it. Send it to all of the churches, maybe the pastors and assistant pastors will be the first ones in line to start searching -- they are often real doers.

Oh...maybe MP will put up a big reward. MP if you are reading, my guess is that if you have retainer for divorce and criminal attorney, and you have money for a PI or two (how many hours a day are they working?) and if you have money for a house at the lake and the other house and jewelry and hotels, then you have a 75K chunk for a reward?
 
Hear is a thought...if anybody from area is posting do you know if any of the trucking companies in the Chattanooga area has been contacted. Chattanooga has Covenant, US Express and a few others that could maybe post flyers at truck stops or at least be notified to be on the lookout for her car. I know its a lot to ask but you never know. The two mentioned have usually been very community oriented.

I have a close friend who works for US Express I will try to call her tonight but she lives in Ringgold and has been staying with a friend since she had damage to her home.. If I cannot contact her tonight I will call her tomorrow at US Express and see IF she has heard about Gail and see IF can find out anything..
 
About searches on top of the mountain:

It's not a place where you can just walk shoulder to shoulder for miles across fields or woods. Any grid search might turn vertical suddenly and people could get hurt.

You have to understand the topography of that place up there. It's heavily wooded and there are rattlesnakes and copperheads awake in the woods. It's rocky, with ravines, possibly known or unknown sinkholes, old mines, and caves. Even people who live up there and experienced hikers/climbers have fallen from the bluffs and had to be rescued at great peril to the mountain rescue team.

ETA: I'm just saying that it might not be easy for inexperienced searchers to take a walk and start searching. So please don't judge people for not searching, because it's going to be dang hard getting around in those woods. It could also be dangerous.

A young girl nearly fell to her death last year.

http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_173235.asp

A 12-year-old girl fell over 100 feet from a cliff on Signal Mountain on Sunday afternoon.

Rescuers had difficulty reaching her at a site near a waterfall.

She was eventually flown by LifeForce helicopter to Erlanger Hospital.

The girl, whose first name is Mallary, was hiking with her aunt, Gayle Hamilton, and her nine-year-old sister.

Over 50 emergency personnel were involved in the cliff rescue at Falling Water Trail.

The fall was around 2:30 p.m., and she was airlifted about four hours later.

And here's even another young woman who died from a fall up there:

http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_175722.asp
 
I really do appreciate your point it is very valid and most of us here do not personally know Gail or her personality.

Last night I spent alot of time on just this same kind of scenerio. But in the end much of what we have seen from the husband says different. First of all rumor has been about his infidelity with plenty of opportunity for mudslinging on both sides. Nothing in regard to Gail. I have been waiting for it though. It usually doesn't take this long to come about in most cases.

I have been pretty outspoken about my suspicions. I am waiting for you or someone to prove me wrong. I won't be too ashamed to admit I was wrong.

I am glad to see that some of you sleuths are thinking on both sides of this issue. As for the infidelity, I don't personally know if he did or did not... for that matter, I don't know if she did or did not. They both could have. Infidelity is terrible and ruins so many families, but it's not illegal. Being a cheater makes one a scum, but not a murderer.

As far as I can tell, the only people who are mud slinging are the 2 neighbors.. One in AL and one on Signal Mtn. <modnsip comment about members> Even the sister and brother haven't been saying bad things about Matt -nor he about them . He did state in court docs that Gail had some mental issues, but so far, other than the sister and neighbor's denial, no one has shown that not to be the case. Could be that the LE has medical records supporting that... I don't know.

I don't see that Matt has done anything that makes him look guilty. His PC appearance didn't seem to have been pre-written by attorneys or rehearsed. To me he looks like a man who really doesn't know what to do next. He is sitting in a really weird spot, and I would assume that he doesn't know what to do or what to say. People who he probably thought were his friends have begun rumors and said nasty things-think neighbors. He's pretty much damned if he does (everyone will pick apart every word he utters and make more out of any statement, look, twitch) AND damned if he doesn't (being quiet is making the rumor mill take off).

I'm not saying that either of them are in the wrong or right. It just seems that many instantly jumped to the conclusion that he is an evil demon. The big, rich man who got rid of his trouble making wife... There is no evidence to prove that. There's no evidence period! Just rumors.

While I do think that Matt and the police and even Gails siblings should be searching for her, I don't think that any of us others really have the right to interfere. If we want to watch for her jeep, great<modsnip>
As for proving you wrong, I would love to do that. Doing so would not only take suspicion off of Matt and his family, but would mean that we knew where Gail is and what she is up to. I would love to be able to do that, but I can't. I don't know what happened or what is going on. None of us on this forum do. I don't think Matt does. That is exactly why it bothers me so much when the nasty senarios are posted. Once they are out there, they can't be taken back. Example, if Gail showed up tomorrow and said all was well and she and Matt made up... there is always that suspicion. It never goes away. People meeting them 10 years from now will think... Palmgren- isn't that those people who???

You can never know what someone is capable of, but my knowledge of Matt Palmgren doesn't let me believe that he has done anything to harm Gail. He is a friendly, personable, fun loving type. He is a concerned and involved father - coaching ball teams, etc. He isn't the type to own a lake house for the prestige of it, but to have a great place to take the kids for the weekend. He's the type to take an afternoon off from work to take his mother to the Dr., or take a flight 100's of miles to go to the funeral or wedding of a friend. He's far from perfect, but I would never have imagined that he would be in the present situation. I am not in any way saying that people shouldn't be searching for Gail - I look for her jeep everywhere I go, and if there is an organized community search, I will be there. <modsnip comments about members> With the lack of true facts, we need to be open minded and searching for the truth, not focused on creating senarios that point to Matt.

Finally, if I am the one who is wrong, I wont be ashamed either, just terribly sad for everyone involved. Prayers to all.
 
While I do think that Matt and the police and even Gails siblings should be searching for her, I don't think that any of us others really have the right to interfere. If we want to watch for her jeep, great, but to go so far as to put senarios out there of how he did things...it's all just assumptions by a bunch of Perry Mason, Matlock wanna-be-s. I know this forum is helpful to many cases, and at some point it may become so on this one, but so far this is a case of marriage going bad and one of the parties has taken off. That is all the REAL facts that we have.

SNIPPED...
IMO... We have absolutely no real facts to indicate Gail just decided to take off on her own VOLITION..JMHO
 
Wouldn't Hoss had taken the opportunity during the PC to make sure it was known he passed a poly, if one had been done? Nope, he lawyered up. IMO
 
SNIPPED...
IMO... We have absolutely no real facts to indicate Gail just decided to take off on her own VOLITION..JMHO

The neighbor who stood in the Walmart parking lot and told the TV cameras that she watched her drive away in her car... That's pretty real.
 
Also, I think he said "Gail if you hear us" instead of "yell if you hear us".

http://www.wrcbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=14661367

- In the news video that shows what appears to be the BOLO going out for Gail, it's for a Missing ENDANGERED Party (about 00:57 mark). I have to wonder if that's because of MP's statements about her mental health, or because of something else.

Great catches on both counts: I think you're right, that is "Gail, if you hear us." I can't go back and edit the transcript unfortunately. I had to look at him while watching him speak to realize it was "Gail" and not "yell."

Also very very interesting about the Missing Endangered Party. How odd that Janice Atkinson would have insisted no suspects, this is "just" a missing persons when clearly it's missing endangered. Maybe she just wasn't briefed very much on the case?
 
Taking off of her own volition and choose to stay away, taking off under duress and taking off under her own volition but being kept away are different things, but can superficially look similar. Unfortunately, we cannot rule out any of those possibilities.

Given her commitment to her children, taking off under her own volition and choosing to just disappear seems the most unlikely, given many of the details (lack of CC and DL, for example).
 
I am glad to see that some of you sleuths are thinking on both sides of this issue. As for the infidelity, I don't personally know if he did or did not... for that matter, I don't know if she did or did not. They both could have. Infidelity is terrible and ruins so many families, but it's not illegal. Being a cheater makes one a scum, but not a murderer.

As far as I can tell, the only people who are mud slinging are the 2 neighbors.. One in AL and one on Signal Mtn. <modnsip comment about members> Even the sister and brother haven't been saying bad things about Matt -nor he about them . He did state in court docs that Gail had some mental issues, but so far, other than the sister and neighbor's denial, no one has shown that not to be the case. Could be that the LE has medical records supporting that... I don't know.

I don't see that Matt has done anything that makes him look guilty. His PC appearance didn't seem to have been pre-written by attorneys or rehearsed. To me he looks like a man who really doesn't know what to do next. He is sitting in a really weird spot, and I would assume that he doesn't know what to do or what to say. People who he probably thought were his friends have begun rumors and said nasty things-think neighbors. He's pretty much damned if he does (everyone will pick apart every word he utters and make more out of any statement, look, twitch) AND damned if he doesn't (being quiet is making the rumor mill take off).

I'm not saying that either of them are in the wrong or right. It just seems that many instantly jumped to the conclusion that he is an evil demon. The big, rich man who got rid of his trouble making wife... There is no evidence to prove that. There's no evidence period! Just rumors.

While I do think that Matt and the police and even Gails siblings should be searching for her, I don't think that any of us others really have the right to interfere. If we want to watch for her jeep, great<modsnip>
As for proving you wrong, I would love to do that. Doing so would not only take suspicion off of Matt and his family, but would mean that we knew where Gail is and what she is up to. I would love to be able to do that, but I can't. I don't know what happened or what is going on. None of us on this forum do. I don't think Matt does. That is exactly why it bothers me so much when the nasty senarios are posted. Once they are out there, they can't be taken back. Example, if Gail showed up tomorrow and said all was well and she and Matt made up... there is always that suspicion. It never goes away. People meeting them 10 years from now will think... Palmgren- isn't that those people who???

You can never know what someone is capable of, but my knowledge of Matt Palmgren doesn't let me believe that he has done anything to harm Gail. He is a friendly, personable, fun loving type. He is a concerned and involved father - coaching ball teams, etc. He isn't the type to own a lake house for the prestige of it, but to have a great place to take the kids for the weekend. He's the type to take an afternoon off from work to take his mother to the Dr., or take a flight 100's of miles to go to the funeral or wedding of a friend. He's far from perfect, but I would never have imagined that he would be in the present situation. I am not in any way saying that people shouldn't be searching for Gail - I look for her jeep everywhere I go, and if there is an organized community search, I will be there. <modsnip comments about members> With the lack of true facts, we need to be open minded and searching for the truth, not focused on creating senarios that point to Matt.

Finally, if I am the one who is wrong, I wont be ashamed either, just terribly sad for everyone involved. Prayers to all.
Bolded by me.

If I had a dime for every time I read that statement during the Scott Peterson trial, I'd be the richest woman in the world.

That being said, I agree that keeping an open mind is important and I welcome reading opposite points of view.
 
Respectfully snipped:

While I do think that Matt and the police and even Gails siblings should be searching for her, I don't think that any of us others really have the right to interfere. If we want to watch for her jeep, great<modsnip>

As for proving you wrong, I would love to do that. Doing so would not only take suspicion off of Matt and his family, but would mean that we knew where Gail is and what she is up to. I would love to be able to do that, but I can't. I don't know what happened or what is going on. None of us on this forum do. I don't think Matt does. That is exactly why it bothers me so much when the nasty senarios are posted. Once they are out there, they can't be taken back. Example, if Gail showed up tomorrow and said all was well and she and Matt made up... there is always that suspicion. It never goes away. People meeting them 10 years from now will think... Palmgren- isn't that those people who???

We understand what you're saying. However, there is a woman missing, and no one is going to help find her unless we keep her name out there. Law enforcement appears, to the best of our knowledge, to not be doing much.

A woman is missing without a trace. Her needs right now have to be considered over the needs of others. And with respect, the goal should not be to "prove us wrong" but to find Gail. I cannot emphasize that enough. We've seen a lot of reports and comments from people who seem to think finding a missing mother of 2 very worried children is low on the list below other concerns. I just cannot personally agree with you here: It is at the top of the list.

Further, I may be pretty new here, but from reading the forum for quite a while I can say that the posters here are caring, thoughtful, experienced in reading/researching other cases of this sort, and all-around helpful. Keeping Gail's case here on WS can only help, it will not hurt.

And if Gail is found safe and unharmed, do you really think people will still suspect Matt of foul play? That quite frankly doesn't make any sense.
 
About searches on top of the mountain:

It's not a place where you can just walk shoulder to shoulder for miles across fields or woods. Any grid search might turn vertical suddenly and people could get hurt.

You have to understand the topography of that place up there. It's heavily wooded and there are rattlesnakes and copperheads awake in the woods. It's rocky, with ravines, possibly known or unknown sinkholes, old mines, and caves. Even people who live up there and experienced hikers/climbers have fallen from the bluffs and had to be rescued at great peril to the mountain rescue team.

ETA: I'm just saying that it might not be easy for inexperienced searchers to take a walk and start searching. So please don't judge people for not searching, because it's going to be dang hard getting around in those woods. It could also be dangerous.

A young girl nearly fell to her death last year.

http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_173235.asp



And here's even another young woman who died from a fall up there:

http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_175722.asp

Thanking this is not enough. This is JMO, but I think that LE and at least one SAR group would be invaluable.
 
As for the infidelity, I don't personally know if he did or did not... for that matter, I don't know if she did or did not. They both could have. Infidelity is terrible and ruins so many families, but it's not illegal. Being a cheater makes one a scum, but not a murderer.

But it can indicate motive.


He did state in court docs that Gail had some mental issues, but so far, other than the sister and neighbor's denial, no one has shown that not to be the case.

It just seems that if she were mentally unstable, somebody besides husband would have known it. I'm not sure how anyone could prove stability, but the scales sure do seem heavily tipped toward her being quite rational.


While I do think that Matt and the police and even Gails siblings should be searching for her, I don't think that any of us others really have the right to interfere.

What on earth does that mean?

You can never know what someone is capable of, but my knowledge of Matt Palmgren doesn't let me believe that he has done anything to harm Gail. He is a friendly, personable, fun loving type. He is a concerned and involved father - coaching ball teams, etc. He isn't the type to own a lake house for the prestige of it, but to have a great place to take the kids for the weekend. He's the type to take an afternoon off from work to take his mother to the Dr., or take a flight 100's of miles to go to the funeral or wedding of a friend. He's far from perfect, but I would never have imagined that he would be in the present situation.

I'm wondering what you believe an abuser looks like. The description I'm reading in your post could just as easily fit an abuser as it could describe a model husband and father. Often, one would have to live in the house to be able to tell the difference.

Confused, I am trying to understand your perspective on the case. I am wondering if you know both Gail and Matt personally or just Matt. If this was stated earlier I missed it.
 
Oriah, thanks for this perspective. That drivers lic has been a sticking point for me. I will give this more thought. What bothers me when I follow this vein of thinking is: It appears she was making a real good START on preparations for the "split".... then I see she is interrupted... or it appears that way to me. Why has she not retrieved any of her "stash" or at least let some of these very trusted confidantes know she is OK in this length of time? This is the MOST disturbing to me.

redfish I agree with this entirely.
My point was only that perhaps she was trying to plan something differently than it actually occurred.

The vehicle is registered in Gail's name, is that correct?
Is the AB home registered jointly? what about other vehicles or homes? Are there any that are LLC's or anything like that?
 
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