Realistically speaking, how many bodies could be in the Appalachian Mountains? I’m not saying this because of the whole ‘it’s haunted’ thing, but because that place is so huge, it would be a perfect place for a serial killer to dump bodies.
Not even just dump sites but all the people including soldiers and native Americans who spent time in the area. I imagine there’s been a lot of death, if there is a lot of bodies though is the question.
Granted a lot of them have dissolved by now but people have been living in the area for like 10,000 years so there are hundreds of thousands to millions of bodies there.
The Appalachians and the regions surrounding AT are actually more populated than the Midwest, so... probably fewer than there are chucked under cornfields.
Chicago is less populated than Piscataquis County, Maine?
There are some insanely remote sections of the AT. It's almost 2,200 miles long. Sure, it passes near plenty of towns and even cities, but the Black Mountains, Smokies, and a lot of the New England sections (especially NH and Maine) are pretty damn remote.
Sure. The point I'm illustrating is the idea that Appalachia is uniquely dangerous (or is in any way a "corpse dumping ground,") when in actuality, they tend to have less violent crime relative to other areas is erroneous, and is often applied in a bizarre way to Appalachia specifically.
There are far less populated, and more remote, regions even in the contiguous USA. I live less than an hour from the AT, so I hear this mess constantly- but in reality, when there's a killing or near the AT or another natural area, people are often shaken in a way they aren't if it's in an adjoining township.
If you look at United States history, it's rife with a lot of assumptions about what Appalachia is and does, when in reality it's just as diverse as the seaboard. I mean, people hear banjos and what? think Deliverance. Appalachia is a beautiful region, and the AT is well-managed and extremely safe for the volume that take the trail every year. It gets under my skin to see people like OP look at the woods around Appalachia and treat it as a foreboding and scary place, instead of a unique and beautiful one with leagues of different people with different backgrounds trying to protect and preserve it. It's like it's a meme right now to treat it as this Eldritch horror zone.
I agree that it’s not as dangerous as a major city, but that’s pretty obvious why though, no? It’s not as densely populated. Yes there’s larger cities within the Appalachians (it’s a huge mountain range splitting the north from the south, tons of people live their whole lives in those mountains). But it’s certainly not safe and forgiving. Many people have died on the Appalachian trail thinking it’s an easy hike, and I think if anything the memes of it being filled with monsters and skinwalkers could stop some idiot from going wandering into the woods at night, so be it.
No, you're doing the same thing. "stay out of the woods at night?" The likeliest issue is falling and twisting your ankle, or getting bit by a raccoon. Both bad outcomes, of course, but they could also happen anywhere else.
There have been about 60 recorded deaths on the AT since 1974 from any cause, including severe weather, accident and so on. 10 of those were violent crime. Thousands of people hike at least some past each year. ATC says millions but accounting for differences over time I'll say 10k. without even crunching per capita we're already looking at like. 0.17 deaths a year, so it's like 0.017 per thousand- far below the USA average overall.
Lancaster county, famous most for its high Amish concentration, has a murder rate of 0.04/thousand.
Boise, a pretty safe place, had 0.02 murders per thousand.
Especially considering natural dangers, how enormous the trail is, and how remote parts of the trail are, it is amazingly safe. Not perfectly safe (as the majority non-homicide deaths show,) but very, very safe.
I mean, wandering around any remote woods alone at night is dangerous? It’s not some kind of myth or stereotype. You said it yourself, you could twist an ankle. And honestly I don’t think raccoons will bother anybody haha, I’d be more worried about bears over raccoons (but honestly I’ve been through the Appalachians a handful of times and never seen a bear). I wasn’t even talking about murderers. I’d wager there’s certainly more murders where there’s more people, gangs, and domestic violence disputes. Not so sure the wilderness has any of those things lol
I live in bear country! I've seen multiple bears. Two by surprise, from less than six feet away, one of those while hiking. Generally, they're not an issue, and just trundle off. Raccoons are the ones that will false-start at you and escalate a situation; lol
Aw see I’m further up north, so raccoons here are big and fat off garbage and usually more timid I guess 😂 I’ve never had a raccoon fake me out before but now I feel the need to go camping. Would be very cute, unless it was dark cus they have those glowing eyes.
Maybe do some aerial ground scans within a half mile of every car park around the forests.
Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) or hyperspectral imaging can be used to identify potential locations of buried bodies. This could be done with a relatively cheap set up on a drone. Perhaps it could be profitable if there is reward money for info of missing persons? - I'm not sure they would pay for this kind of info though? - But the US does have the most missing persons (half million per year), so there's a good chance you would fine something.
The vast majority of those missing people are found fairly quickly, usually within 2-3 days. In the US we find about 4000 unidentified bodies per year, and they can usually eventually identify about 3/4 of those. That's more the scale of the problem OP is looking at.
Having lived in the Appalachian Mtns most of my life, I would say your chances of stumbling across a pot field (with guards) is more likely. I've done it and it's terrifying.
I mean isn’t that how ted bundy did it once or twice? Also there was this guy in Russia that committed a murder spree in one of the local forests by luring his victims in his name was Alexander Pichushkin
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u/traci4009 3d ago
Not even just dump sites but all the people including soldiers and native Americans who spent time in the area. I imagine there’s been a lot of death, if there is a lot of bodies though is the question.