Hi, all--newbie here. I grew up in this county and I go back all the time. Maysville is about 11 miles outside Salida, which in the last census was about 5200 full-time residents. Maysville isn't really a "town" per se -- it used to be but currently it's a "census-designated place" in Chaffee County and has about 135 residents, all spread out. Historically, Maysville had around 1000 residents in the 1880s; it has a mining history. But throughout the 20th century, population dwindled. It's now mostly residences like SM's house and a few historic buildings.
It's on the way up Monarch Pass, and it gets pretty mountainous pretty fast on Highway 50, which is mostly standard 2-lane. This is a rural area with a lot of trails for hiking and biking; standard protocol for those of us who grow up in areas like this is that if you're going on a trail ride/hike or you plan to go for a long road ride (or camping or river-running or whatever), you let somebody know that you're going to be doing that and what trail or road/part of the river you're planning to be on. Because SM's house is a remote location, it's true that her neighbors may not have a direct sight-line to her house, but chances are they pay attention to who's coming and going in the subdivision.
I agree that the neighbors may not have been keeping tabs on SM, but it's possible that they all have each other's phone numbers (in rural areas like this, you make sure you know who your neighbors are because you never know when somebody might need some help or if there's an emergency).
That said, there are so many weirdnesses to this awful situation, and my questions are similar to all of yours.
I don't find it completely strange that a neighbor would file a report, because in rural areas we do tend to notice things, but I need way more info.
- It seems to me that if you're going to tell anyone that you're headed out for a bike ride, it's going to be your family members, even if they're not currently at home. You'll text or call them, and when they don't hear from you for a while, they're the ones who will notify neighbors to check and notify authorities.
- OR it's possible that SM didn't think anything of a quick bike ride and didn't notify her family and just decided to do a quick ride around the area, something maybe she had done many times in the past, so she didn't notify her family, thinking "it's just a quick ride."
- Perhaps riding along toward the highway and the trailhead that's located near it she saw a neighbor out walking or riding or something and they stopped to chat. At that point, SM could have mentioned where she was headed.
- Or maybe she had plans with a neighbor later in the day and when she didn't show up, the neighbor got concerned. If so, that neighbor may have known about SM's ride because maybe they checked in beforehand to finalize plans for later.
- BUT if that neighbor had SM's phone number, why wouldn't they have her husband's, too? Why wouldn't they contact him with their concerns?
BUT again, all speculation on my part, thinking about what you do when you live in areas like this and you want to do your outdoor recreation. Regardless, my friends and I from the area have been talking about this for days, and we're all just waiting for any new information. So awful for her friends and family.
Thanks, everyone, for the discussions here.
(I have followed way too many cases on here).
