AZ AZ - Mary Sloan, 53, Mt Graham, 3 Sept 2015

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los2188

los2188

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Mary Sloan
55ef4d1fe6f8b.image.jpg

Tucson woman missing in Mt. Graham
"MOUNT GRAHAM, Ariz. (KGUN9-TV) - Authorities are searching for a Tucson woman that went missing while camping at Mt. Graham over the holiday weekend.

Lt. Jerry Nelson said 53-year-old Mary Sloan was last seen around 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, September 3 at her campsite in the Columbine area. She was camping with a group of seven other people."
http://www.scrippsmedia.com/kgun9/news/Tucson-woman-missing--325462281.html?lc=Smart
photo: http://www.eacourier.com/news/hiker...cle_91557588-58e5-11e5-bec9-d3955decef74.html
 
This is a long time to be missing in the extreme temperature changes that can occur around mountains in Arizona. I assume search and rescue teams, professional and/or volunteers have been out every day. Praying for a good outcome!
 
My wife and I have hiked in the Pinaleno Mountains, where Mary Sloan disappeared, many times. A few things about ths hiking trip don't make any sense.

1. They camped on a road instead of in a campground. To get to where the group was staying they drove 32-34 miles on twisting, switchback-filled roads, including 10 miles of dirt road, and passed 5 maintained campgrounds! Why?

2. Where they camped was not a place where trailheads to notable trails were located. There are only two serious trails to be hiked within a few miles of where they camped. Both are quite hard and you'd want to be camped near the trailheads, not be 2 miles away and have to walk further after an exhausting day of climbing the equivalent of 3-4 Empire State Bldgs.

3. It is monsoon season here, which means frequent violent rains. Tents on the road makes no sense. In a campground on grass conditions would be much better.

A voluntary disappearance is unlikely given that someone would have to drive 32-34 miles up a very difficult road at night to meet you. If you were going to walk away from your life, there's easier ways to do it.

Apart from foul play, which has to be considered, especially since she apparently didn't stay in her tent that night and there's no scent trail away from the camping area, the only scenario that makes sense to us is that she got up early, set off hiking on her own, may have gotten lost, and then had a serious fall and was injured and hasn't been located yet by searchers. The campsite was at 9000 ft so you don't have desert heat (we were once snowed and sleeted on in August hiking at 9000 ft there), so dehydration isn't as serious a factor and she could still be immobile but alive.

Finally, this area has some of the largest black bear populations in Arizona and the Southwest. My wife and I have encountered 4 black bears on hikes in Arizona in the past 6-7 years. though not in the Pinalenos. Generally bears shy away from people when they hear noise. However, there are always exceptions.
 
iron_iking said:
My wife and I have hiked in the Pinaleno Mountains, where Mary Sloan disappeared, many times. A few things about ths hiking trip don't make any sense.

1. They camped on a road instead of in a campground. To get to where the group was staying they drove 32-34 miles on twisting, switchback-filled roads, including 10 miles of dirt road, and passed 5 maintained campgrounds! Why?

2. Where they camped was not a place where trailheads to notable trails were located. There are only two serious trails to be hiked within a few miles of where they camped. Both are quite hard and you'd want to be camped near the trailheads, not be 2 miles away and have to walk further after an exhausting day of climbing the equivalent of 3-4 Empire State Bldgs.

3. It is monsoon season here, which means frequent violent rains. Tents on the road makes no sense. In a campground on grass conditions would be much better.

A voluntary disappearance is unlikely given that someone would have to drive 32-34 miles up a very difficult road at night to meet you. If you were going to walk away from your life, there's easier ways to do it.

Apart from foul play, which has to be considered, especially since she apparently didn't stay in her tent that night and there's no scent trail away from the camping area, the only scenario that makes sense to us is that she got up early, set off hiking on her own, may have gotten lost, and then had a serious fall and was injured and hasn't been located yet by searchers. The campsite was at 9000 ft so you don't have desert heat (we were once snowed and sleeted on in August hiking at 9000 ft there), so dehydration isn't as serious a factor and she could still be immobile but alive.

Finally, this area has some of the largest black bear populations in Arizona and the Southwest. My wife and I have encountered 4 black bears on hikes in Arizona in the past 6-7 years. though not in the Pinalenos. Generally bears shy away from people when they hear noise. However, there are always exceptions.
Click to expand...

I don't know about you but I never use a camp site if I can help it. If they went to party I could see why not a regular camp ground. As to where a tent gets put, when a person gets tired enough a camp site happens.
 
Pappa Rob,

I think you raised an interesting point. I think law enforcement needs to ask questions and determine if this was a serious hardcore hiking trip, or if it was more along the lines of a party over a holiday weekend in the cool climes of 9000 ft in a hot desert state.

They should be asking the following: what trails were you planning to hike? (it can narrow the search area down as well as determine if it was more of a party) Were people leaving in a group to hike the trail? How much alcohol was consumed the night she went missing (serious hikers in desert states usually don't drink the night before a tough hike). Also, if someone noticed a vehicle left and return during the night, that's a major red flag. It's 40 miles one-way to the only store or gas station that's open 24 hrs. With the mtn roads at night, it'd take at least 3 hrs to make that round trip. If a vehicle came and returned in a shorter time, it'd be very suspicious.
 
Hiker still missing on Mount Graham
Posted: Saturday, September 12, 2015 12:00 am
http://www.eacourier.com/news/hiker...cle_91557588-58e5-11e5-bec9-d3955decef74.html
Graham County Search and Rescue Coordinator Lt. Jerry Nelson said despite not having any sign of Sloan, his department, along with rescuers from Pima, Maricopa and Cochise counties, will continue to scour the area for the hiker who has been missing for more than a week. Rescuers from all four units have braved the descent of the nearby cliff in their attempt to locate Sloan.

“We’re going to put in a couple of good days up there over the weekend, and we’re just going to have to see where we go from there,” he said. “We have a lot of man hours in it.”

Nelson encouraged the public to notify the Sheriff’s Office if they have any information regarding the missing hiker.
Click to expand...
 
Sounds as though she went for some kind of a midnight stroll and ended up on the wrong end of a ravine.

Hiking up and down steep trails in the dark probably isn't the smartest idea, those sheer drop-offs can be a killer. My guess is she decided to get up somewhere high just to see what she could see.

They'll find her......maybe.
 
iron_iking said:
My wife and I have hiked in the Pinaleno Mountains, where Mary Sloan disappeared, many times. A few things about ths hiking trip don't make any sense.

1. They camped on a road instead of in a campground. To get to where the group was staying they drove 32-34 miles on twisting, switchback-filled roads, including 10 miles of dirt road, and passed 5 maintained campgrounds! Why?

2. Where they camped was not a place where trailheads to notable trails were located. There are only two serious trails to be hiked within a few miles of where they camped. Both are quite hard and you'd want to be camped near the trailheads, not be 2 miles away and have to walk further after an exhausting day of climbing the equivalent of 3-4 Empire State Bldgs.

3. It is monsoon season here, which means frequent violent rains. Tents on the road makes no sense. In a campground on grass conditions would be much better.

A voluntary disappearance is unlikely given that someone would have to drive 32-34 miles up a very difficult road at night to meet you. If you were going to walk away from your life, there's easier ways to do it.

Apart from foul play, which has to be considered, especially since she apparently didn't stay in her tent that night and there's no scent trail away from the camping area, the only scenario that makes sense to us is that she got up early, set off hiking on her own, may have gotten lost, and then had a serious fall and was injured and hasn't been located yet by searchers. The campsite was at 9000 ft so you don't have desert heat (we were once snowed and sleeted on in August hiking at 9000 ft there), so dehydration isn't as serious a factor and she could still be immobile but alive.

Finally, this area has some of the largest black bear populations in Arizona and the Southwest. My wife and I have encountered 4 black bears on hikes in Arizona in the past 6-7 years. though not in the Pinalenos. Generally bears shy away from people when they hear noise. However, there are always exceptions.
Click to expand...
Awesome breakdown on some strange hiking beginnings. There were plenty of cool campgrounds on the mountain to get to any trail in the AM. I was wondering if you could help me locate the camp site they had. I live in Safford and am getting curious about where this "cliff" is. I suppose it is on the North side as the mentioned Pima as a way to get the bottom. I am looking on my Mapsource Map from Garmin but they do not name the road "Grand View..". I sure would appreciate your expertise. Thank you, Ron​


 
Adventuron et al,

Here's a link with an aerial view of where this group camped. I believe it's about where the right-hand most "803" sign was, or a little left of it.

http://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/coronado/recreation/camping-cabins/recarea/?recid=25582&actid=29


Here's a few other things that bother me about this case:

1. Why haven't we heard what trail they were going to hike? As in the case of the 5 passed USFS campgrounds, they passed numerous good hiking trails, too.

2. How close was the cliff to where they camped?

3. They're not saying who was the last person to see her alive.
 
Super agree with iron about strange lack of information, and much appreciation for the camp site. I did not see any comments from her family. I will probably draw a line down from so called cliff and keep my eyes open when I hike in there. God willing another way she will be found than that. But this case still is giving mount graham a disconcerting mysterious feeling.
 
Adventuron et al,

Her family has commented in Tucson media, and one of her sisters isn't ruling out foul play. Here's a partial quote from her sister Sherrie Brown as reported by channel 13's Tucson News Now on Sept. 7, a few days after Mary went missing:

http://www.tucsonnewsnow.com/story/29974744/tucson-woman-reported-missing

Here's the pertinent excerpt:

"Though she has not been told that foul play is suspected, Brown said it is difficult not to worry that something went wrong on Mount Graham."
 
3 Months Later and silence on Mary?? Sloan family - do you think your daughter is on the mountain in peace? or maybe not? can you help us with any updates? Thank you, AR
 
I hope LE remembers to do a flyover after all the leaves have fallen off the trees and before any snow falls. It might be a lot easier to see her now than it was 3 months ago.
 
Bumping for Mary. It's now hiking season in the Pinaleno Mtns outside Safford, AZ and I urge everyone who reads this, or has friends who hike Mt Graham and the surrounding area, to be on the lookout for Mary's remains or effects.

My wife and I will be hiking out there on the July 4 weekend and even though we're not going to be anywhere near the campsite she was last seen at with the other hikers, we will be alert to anything that could be evidence related to her disappearance. She could be anywhere up in those mountains.

Her family deserves closure.
 
Sleuths, Sloan Family,
Any news on Mary's whereabouts?
Thank you,
Still hoping,
Ron
 
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