ME ME - Jessie Hoover, 54, Millinocket, 20 May 1983

NamUs

Charley Project

Doe Network

Case Classification: Missing
Missing Since: May 20, 1983
Location Last Seen: Millinocket, Penobscot County, Maine

Physical Description
Date of Birth: Unknown
Age at Time of Disappearance: 54 yrs
Race: White
Gender: Female
Height at Time of Disappearance: 5' 10
Weight at Time of Disappearance: 240 lbs
Hair Color: Gray
Eye Color: Unknown
Alias(s) / Nickname(s): Unknown
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Epilepsy
Dentals: Unknown; Missing two front teeth
Fingerprints: Unknown
DNA: Unknown

Clothing & Personal Items
Clothing: She was wearing blue jeans, blue shirt, blue windbreaker
Jewelry: Unknown
Additional Personal Items: Blue knapsack

Circumstances of Disappearance
Maine State Police Missing since: 1983 Town: Millinocket Jesse Hoover was reported missing on 7-11-83 by her sister. Hoover traveled to Maine from Texas to hike the Appalachian Trail. She was last seen on 5-20-83 at the Baxter State Park Headquarters. Hoover was an epileptic and had no special equipment or knowledge to aid her while hiking.

There was a recent story published that talked about her life and her family members were included.

The untold, unsolved case of Jessie Hoover:
http://external.bangordailynews.com/projects/2015/05/vanished-what-happened-to-jessie-hoover-in-the-maine-woods/#.VUxa2flVikq

Since her disappearance, Hoover’s name has been little more than a footnote in Maine history. Her name was forgotten for decades, and only listed recently in public missing person reports and unsolved case files.

Yet her family in White Settlement, Texas, still waits for an answer to a question first asked 32 years ago: What happened to Jessie Hoover? Did she really simply disappear without a trace?

Click to expand...

I found this thread from reading a post by biscuit222 on the Gerry Largay's thread. I have put a link below to her post as a reference.

The Bangor Daily article was very informative on Jessie's life and her decision to hike the AT. It seems so unusual for neither of the ladies to have been found after their disappearances from the trail.

I feel for her family in that they have no answers as to where she is after all this time.


http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sh...rail-Sandy-River-Plantation-21-Jul-2013/page9

Retired game warden doubts missing AT hiker Jessie Hoover will be found

http://bangordailynews.com/2015/10/17/news/state/retired-game-warden-doubts-jessie-hoover-will-be-found/

“I think unfortunately the odds would be very, very slim” that Hoover will be found, Sewall said. “But miracles do happen.”

Click to expand...

Ever since her disappearance, Sewall has wondered what happened to Hoover. But as the years have passed, he said it’s unlikely we’ll ever know. Sewall said he was “surprised” to learn that Largay’s remains may have been discovered because he said the odds are so small that a person will be found the longer he or she is missing.

“I’ve never located the remains of someone who has been missing a [long] period of time,” he said. “It happens, but I’ve never been involved.”

Sewall doubts Hoover’s remains would be identifiable after so many years. He said the best hope of identifying Hoover would be to find her gear, though her belongings would be long buried.

Click to expand...

On Namus the DNA status for Jessie Hoover now says "Samples submitted - Tests not complete". I think this is progress in the case because I remember they didn't have DNA being tested before. After a discussion about missing Maine hikers on the Gerry Largay thread, I wondered about the Hoover case in connection with an unidentified body found in New York in 1984:

https://identifyus.org/en/cases/9736

The body was found by a hiker fairly close to where the Appalachian Trail crosses through New York. DNA is entered for that case. It was the first time I ever contacted Namus about the possibility of a match. Maybe DNA testing can soon show if my idea was right or not. The Bangor Daily talks about Jessie Hoover hitchhiking:

"Even though Hoover continued to live with her mother, she regularly hitchhiked between Louisiana and California to spend time with both parents."
http://external.bangordailynews.com...essie-hoover-in-the-maine-woods/#.VUxa2flVikq

I wonder if she managed to hitchhike south from Maine to New York, since it's unlikely she managed to get there on foot. No one saw her on the trail apparently.

Just compared picture and description on this thread to the Namus one and I think you are right on. Thanks for submitting Jessie as a possibility.
I hope DNA tests will be completed soon and will result in a good outcome so this case can finally be solved for the family.

Namus now says "DNA: Sample submitted - Tests complete" for Jessie Hoover, I'm astonished at how quick it's gone through. Other cases take years to get put in.

When the tests are complete and entered, does Namus automatically start comparing any and all cases?

How a reporter unraveled the untold tale of missing AT hiker Jessie Hoover

https://bangordailynews.com/2016/05...ntold-tale-of-missing-at-hiker-jessie-hoover/

Good grief. How could anyone with no real hiking experience and no suitable equipment dream of tackling a trail like this? She would have been woefully ill-prepared for anything more demanding than the South Downs Way in high summer. Given the loss of her husband 6 months previously, it makes one wonder if this was an unofficial suicide.

MelmothTheLost said:

Good grief. How could anyone with no real hiking experience and no suitable equipment dream of tackling a trail like this? She would have been woefully ill-prepared for anything more demanding than the South Downs Way in high summer. Given the loss of her husband 6 months previously, it makes one wonder if this was an unofficial suicide.

Click to expand...

It's because they have no real experience that they do it -- they think because they can comfortably walk five miles at the local park, that something like the AT will be easy. I have a friend who is nearing age 65, and he is adamant that he want to hike the AT when he retires, yet he has never climbed a mountain. I've climbed many mountains, and have tried to show him through photos how tough it is to climb even the small mountains we have here in NY, but he seems to think that it's only about being physically fit and having the right mindset. Granted, that's a big part of it, but then there's the reality of days spent soaking wet, insect bites, waking up with frost on your eyelashes, the tedious task of filtering water, the discomfort of listening to some stranger snoring next to you in a lean-to, trying to get comfortable sleeping on a tree root, or not being able to get away from the smell of your own dirty hair. People think it's just a long walk in the woods and being alone with your thoughts for that length of time will be cathartic -- they don't realize that at times the only thought in their heads will be to keep putting one foot in front of the other and will this journey ever end...

I recently read the Bangor Daily News's "Vanished" piece and, though there was nothing specific there, I got the idea she was flying into the mystery, as it were, fully expecting never to be seen again. I think it was her intent.

Locations Unknown is a podcast specifically about those that have gone missing in America's wilderness...
Episode #41 is about Jessie

• 
• 

Hoover, circa 1983

Details of Disappearance​

Hoover was last seen on May 20, 1983 at the Baxter State Park Headquarters in Millinocket, Maine. She had traveled from Texas to Maine to hike the Appalachian Trail, which extends along the East Coast from Maine down to Georgia.

She was unfamiliar with the area, had no particular knowledge of hiking and no specialist equipment with her, and no more than $15 or $20 in cash. She planned to wire home for money and pick up her prescriptions as she passed through towns on the way.

Hoover was going to climb Mount Katahdin on May 20, but park rangers refused to permit it because they felt she was unprepared. She was last seen at the trailhead of the 100-Mile Wilderness, the most remote stretch of the Appalachian Trail.

Although hikers are advised to carry eight to ten days' worth of food through the 100-Mile Wilderness, all Hoover had was some beef jerky. Temperatures in the area reached a high of 72 during the day, but fell down to around thirty degrees that night, and it was raining. Hoover could have developed hypothermia under those conditions.

Hoover's sister reported her missing on July 11, almost two months after she was last seen. An extensive search of the area turned up no sign of her, and no other area hikers remembered having seen her. Her case remains unsolved.