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

ThoughtFox said:

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

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glorias said:

Respectfully snipped:



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.

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confused said:

<modsnip>. My goal is not to "prove you wrong", I simply said that I would love to do so, because that would mean Gail would be found and Matt would not be subjected to the cruel comments and insinuations.

Yes, I do think when Gail is found safe and unharmed, people will still remember this. Do I think they will still suspect Matt of foul play? No, I didn't say that. I do think that everyone will remember all the negative comments. People will wonder if he did cheat. The children will still face teachers, peers and parents who saw or read something about this. For example, 1 year from now, Gail is home and she and Matt have reconciled. All is well and life goes on. Your 10 year old comes home and says he has been invited to the Palmgrens lake house for the weekend. Do you let him go? See what I mean? Yes, people remember the bad, no matter how good the outcome.

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ThoughtFox said:

That might work in some places, but not with the Tennessee or Alabama State Patrols. Seriously, she would know that.

Plus as many have stated here, Signal Mountain is known as a speed trap where they pull people over for any little thing. Not having a DL on you is just going to get someone a large fine and possibly a day in traffic court.

I can see no reason why a woman who just drove home four hours from Alabama would dump her DL and her purse and then drive away. This strikes me as a classic case of someone not leaving on their own, and maybe whoever left the stuff behind didn't think about how it would look to LE. JMOO

It's a bit like the Hailey Dunn case in which we are supposed to believe that young teenage girl would leave behind not only her purse and her brand new iPod, but her coat and shoes on a cold day in winter. It makes no sense.

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confused said:

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.

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sophieness said:

ok, you have to admit, the birth control idea is kind of funny.

so far as we know she left with her keys and possibly her cell phone only. if there are other items she took no one has mentioned them. we don't know if she had any money on her, or any jewelry that is supposedly missing. I wonder if she left some jewelry, with her friend at the lake.

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Pearl* said:

This time I must defend our SMPD. It is inconceivable for the police to tell a "raving mad" mother to leave the house WITH the children so that they could watch her--and with mom driving them on a 4 hr. trip to the lake house.

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believe09 said:

Then there must be other pings between when she called her sister and May 2nd which means LE knows where she was at least for that period of time, correct?

Unless the phone was shut off. In between times that is.

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believe09 said:

Then there must be other pings between when she called her sister and May 2nd which means LE knows where she was at least for that period of time, correct?

Unless the phone was shut off. In between times that is.

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lefty1062 said:

Does anyone know if the ping was before or after her husband made the missing persons call on the 2nd? Is there water near where the ping was recorded? Was just thinking that maybe the phone had been off and someone turned it on right before disposing of it somewhere in that area.

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lefty1062 said:

Does anyone know if the ping was before or after her husband made the missing persons call on the 2nd? Is there water near where the ping was recorded? Was just thinking that maybe the phone had been off and someone turned it on right before disposing of it somewhere in that area.

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glorias said:

Forums4Justice has posted that the ping was about 5 PM that day. My understanding is that the 911 call came in earlier, prior to the ping, but I can't find anything about the specific time of the 911 call.

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fran said:

hmmm................that's interesting. the ping was about 5 p.m.?

Wonder where the phone was going?

I also wonder where Matt and the kids were during two days from the time Gail was last spotted by a neighbor and she talked to her sister, to when her cell pinged on 5/2?

Guess LE needs to talk to the kids.

JMHO
fran

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hollyblue said:

Anyone else think it strange that she gave "possessions" to the other neighbors as well as to someone in AL? Why?

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glorias said:

I've been searching the news articles for just that tonight. They say Susie Button was given the passport and cash, but no reason why is given. However, Button was quoted as saying:

Susie Button, who lives across the street from the Palmgren family, said she believes Gail Palmgren was fearful. Button showed up Monday to pass out fliers, and Nichols has stayed with her during the search.

“I feel she went unwillingly and that something was going on at the house,” Button said. “I really believe she was scared of something. She would never leave her kids alone this long. She’s a wonderful mother, a great friend.”
​

http://timesfreepress.com/news/2011/may/17/missing-woman-search-continues-gail-palmgren/

So it's implied that she left items with Button because "something was going on at the house."

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