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E185: Trenny Gibson
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An estimated 400 people go missing each year in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park-- the most visited of all national parks. One such missing person disappeared while standing right beside a group of her peers, only half a mile from the parking lot where her school bus was waiting to load up all the students from the horticulture class from Bearden High School in Knoxville and begin the 50-mile trek back. Did she have an accident? Did she meet with foul play? What happened to Trenny Gibson?
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Transcript
Introduction to Great Smoky Mountains National Park
00:00:00
Speaker
Based upon data from as recently as last year, 2022, there is one national park that is by far the most visited here in the United States. Three times as many visitors, in fact, than the Grand Canyon. That national park is none other than the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The Smoky Mountains saw nearly 13 million visitors last year alone.
00:00:27
Speaker
And it has held the title of number one for decades. The mountain range, which runs from Tennessee to North Carolina, is beautiful to behold if you've never been. It is a true ecological wonder. And it's actually all of the plant life in the area that creates the bluish smoky fog by releasing volatile organic compounds.
Ecological and Wildlife Wonders
00:00:54
Speaker
This is also the place of bustling wildlife activity, namely black bears, of which on average there are two black bear per every square mile of the park. If you stay in a cabin in the area, you're gonna want to make sure that you don't leave food outside or you're likely to see one
00:01:17
Speaker
up close and personal. And while there are many breathtaking sites within the park itself, most who visit know there is a prime location to take it all in. Clingmans Dome, which is the highest point in all the park. The dome is located at a point in the park
00:01:35
Speaker
where the Appalachian Trail passes through. And if you hike the steep trail that is close to a mile to climb to the top of the dome, and if the day is clear, you can see around 100 miles all around. Talk about something awe-inspiring.
The Case of Trenny Gibson
00:01:56
Speaker
But for every beautiful site, there is something much darker lurking just behind the scenes. Because the park has the active wildlife, because of the steep trails, the dense foliage, and the likelihood of getting sidetracked away from the park's known paths, authorities estimate close to 400 people go missing in the park every year.
00:02:23
Speaker
It's one of those cases that we're going to discuss today. It's a case of a young girl surrounded by her peers who seemed to just vanish, never to be seen again. This is the case of Trenny Gibson.
00:03:14
Speaker
Welcome to Coffee and Cases where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold. My name is Allison Williams. And my name is Maggie Dameron.
00:03:23
Speaker
We will be telling stories each week in the hopes that someone out there with any information concerning the cases will take those tips to law enforcement. So justice and closure can be brought to these families. With each case, we encourage you to continue in the conversation on our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast, because as we all know, conversation helps to keep the missing person in the public consciousness, helping keep their memories alive. So sit back, sip your coffee, and listen to what's brewing this week.
00:03:51
Speaker
Now, before we get into this episode, Maggie and I just want to let you know a couple of exciting things. First, we wanted to quickly tell you about a contest that we are starting this week. So all of our Patreon members who are currently members
00:04:12
Speaker
or who join in the month of June will be entered into a contest to win a coffee and cases mug. And listen, you don't even have to go to patreon.com forward slash coffee and cases because we have put the link to it in our show notes. So you can just click down there if you're interested and you can join Patreon at any level to be eligible for this contest.
00:04:40
Speaker
But if you do join at least the $5 a month level and up, then you also gain access to bonus content that we know you will enjoy because there's everything from solve cases to mini episodes about our lives, to mysteries, to interviews. However, you can, as I mentioned before, join at just the $2 a month level.
00:05:04
Speaker
you know, maybe if you don't want the bonus content, but you do want to support the show and also to be part of the contest. And don't forget that if you join at the 12, 15, or $20 levels, then you will also receive a swag box every three months. And one of those just went out today. And the next one will go out in August. But the key here is you have to be at that Patreon level for all three months to receive the swag box. Now, Allison,
00:05:33
Speaker
This is a question I have. If they join at the $12 level and then decide, actually, I want all of the swag box items, so the next month they jump to 20, then that still qualifies them for the swag box. They don't have to remain at that level. They could go up or down. Correct. As long as it is in that range. But where you are in that range, the 12, 15, or 20 will determine how many items are in your swag box.
00:05:57
Speaker
So keep that in mind when you join. And now is the perfect time to join anyways, to be part of not only the mug giveaway, but also to get in on that next round of swag. And so basically it's just goodies all around for everybody and all of your willingness obviously to support us.
00:06:15
Speaker
by just loving our show. And so we will do that mug drawing during our recording of the June 29th episode. So at the end of this month. That's right. And we also wanted to remind you that we are still working out the details of our next live show. So we will announce those details as soon as we have them ourselves because we can't wait to see your lovely faces. Again, our first live show was so much fun.
00:06:41
Speaker
We've been looking forward to this one for quite a while now. So with that out of the way, let's get into this episode.
Trenny's Background
00:06:51
Speaker
Yeah, I'm excited. So Trini Lynn Gibson was born on August 17th, 1960. She was the middle child of Hope and Robert Gibson Sr. And as you can imagine, because I just said his
00:07:08
Speaker
suffix they're a senior, that there is a Robert Gibson, Jr. And that was Trenny's older brother. Trenny also had a younger sister named Tina. And Trenny was very close to her siblings, her parents, pretty much all of her family.
00:07:26
Speaker
In 1976, Trenny was a 16-year-old sophomore at Bearden High School in Knoxville, Tennessee. She was a petite girl. She stood at only 5'3", and she weighed only 115 pounds. Oh, wow. So she is tiny. She is.
00:07:47
Speaker
According to reports that I read from a collection of reporters, family, friends, Trini was very outgoing and because she was so friendly she had a lot of friends and acquaintances alike.
00:07:59
Speaker
And when I was reading stories about her, I couldn't tell if she was a smoker or if some of her friends were, but one of her friends told John North and Leslie Ackerson of WBIR that Trenny would often be outside in the school's designated smoking area. And for our younger listeners, yes.
00:08:23
Speaker
There used to be a designated smoking area outside of schools for the students in the 1980s and even early to mid sometimes in some places even late 1990s. Yeah, my brother was in high school like 96, 97 around that time and parents could sign in at my high school to let their kids go outside to the designated smoking area and smoke.
00:08:51
Speaker
Yeah. Which is crazy. These were, yeah, clearly different times. So before you start thinking, she was outside smoking at school. I mean, it was pretty commonplace for students to do that. It's almost as common as your old vape pens now. There you go.
00:09:06
Speaker
That's a great comparison. And I mean, I can remember, I don't remember if we had a smoking area outside of my high school. I graduated in 97, but I do remember when I was younger going into restaurants where there was a smoking and a non-smoking section and they'd literally be one table apart. Yeah. So very helpful there. Yeah, exactly. So I mean, smoking in general used to obviously be a lot more commonplace.
00:09:35
Speaker
Trenny was an extremely responsible girl as well. She was dedicated to learning how to play the cello, which I find fascinating. I know. And she was working as many hours as she could at her job in the food court and the local mall because she wanted to save money to buy a car.
00:09:53
Speaker
Right, which every 16 year old gets that job at the crappy minimum wage job to save up for the car because you have no idea how much it really costs. Right, you'd have to work probably 12 years of your life to actually afford the car, but you know.
00:10:08
Speaker
And I mentioned earlier that she was 16. She had actually, the case we're going to talk about takes place in October. She had just turned 16 in August. And you know, now that she had her driver's license, she was excited to get out on the road to get that car.
00:10:26
Speaker
I can remember being excited. But I mean, she was still only 16. So when her brother Bob, which is Robert, right? Yes. Yeah. Bob. Yeah. Had just gotten home on leave from the Navy.
00:10:42
Speaker
He found out that Trenny might be going on a whole day long field trip with her high school horticulture class. He had actually asked a good friend of his named Robert Simpson, who was older than Trenny. Trenny was a sophomore. Robert was a senior.
00:10:58
Speaker
but was also in that same horticulture class to actually, Bob said, watch out for my sister when we're on this field trip because she's never been away from home for an entire day. So here's Bob being this protective older brother. I feel like Robert was a very popular name. Definitely. Yeah, because we've got two right here.
00:11:21
Speaker
So let me tell you a little bit about this field trip.
The Field Trip to Great Smoky Mountains
00:11:25
Speaker
So the trip was spearheaded by the horticulture teacher, Mr. Wayne Dunlap, obviously. And that's like the study of plants. Yes, yes. And he actually wanted to surprise his students with a field trip. He did tell them that they would be taking a trip, but he hadn't told them where they would be going because he wanted it to be a surprise.
00:11:50
Speaker
So permission slips? Not a thing. Again, these are very different times, Maggie. What I read was that there were not permission slips that were sent home with the students. I can't imagine a world, number one, where there are no permission slips. We're like, oh, your parents don't want you to go? Well, I wouldn't know because I didn't give permission slips. And number two,
00:12:19
Speaker
where students don't know where they're going and the students' parents have no idea where their child is going to be. Right. So you could potentially just show up to school one day and your first period teacher would be like,
00:12:32
Speaker
or they would make an announcement. All of Ms. Dameron's students need to report to the auditorium for a field trip today and you'd be like, sweet. Yeah, cool. Okay. All right. Yeah. In terms of Trenny's feelings, I did see some conflicting reports about the proposed field trip.
00:12:49
Speaker
In one account, I read that Trini was excited about the prospect of the trip because she loved this horticulture class. She was actually extremely interested in plants and trees. And so because of that, she obviously knew she was going to enjoy whatever this teacher had in mind for a trip.
00:13:08
Speaker
But other accounts said that Trini had actually contemplated not going on the trip and that she hadn't even gone to school on that Friday, October 8th, 1976, dressed for a field trip because she had assumed that the trip would be canceled anyway due to the unseasonably cold, rainy weather.
00:13:33
Speaker
And you don't even know where you're going. So how would you know if you're dressed appropriately? Yeah, you really wouldn't. So here she's coming to school. She's thinking, you know what? I was going to not go on the trip, but I may as well go to school because it's probably going to be canceled anyway because it's cold, it's rainy, but the trip wasn't canceled, Maggie.
00:13:52
Speaker
Trini's mom actually drove her to school that morning. And when they got there, Trini asked a passing student if she knew if the trip were canceled. And when Trini learned that the trip was still on, she actually grabbed her bag lunch from her mom's car and she left her purse as well as her books in her mom's car because, you know, she's going to be gone all day. I'm going to need them. Yeah, she's not going to need those things.
00:14:16
Speaker
So after taking attendance and getting the bus loaded, Mr. Dunlap, along with around 38 students, set out for their adventure. Oh, you know what? Mr. Dunlap, you are a brave man. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Because I would not go by myself. Yeah, I was going to say, he, from everything I read, if there were another teacher, I didn't read a name. He's the only teacher's name, other than the bus driver, only other adult. Absolutely not. Yeah.
00:14:46
Speaker
So as they left the parking lot, that is when Dunlap told the students their destination, which was the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where they were going to study the plant life there. Trenny was seated near the back of the bus, which is probably where I would be sitting. And she was sitting beside Brother Bob's friend, Robert.
00:15:09
Speaker
Now, are Robert and her just friends? Are they dating? I never got a clear answer to that.
00:15:18
Speaker
It seems that they were just friends. I did read some accounts where they said that Robert was potentially interested in the relationship being something more, but I never read whether Trenny reciprocated those feelings. Gotcha. But she was sitting next to him and obviously she knows him as her brother's friend.
00:15:42
Speaker
because he's a couple years older. And Robert did actually loan his brown and orange plaid wool coat to Trenny. Because if you remember, I mentioned she thought the trip was going to be canceled. So she didn't really dress for the weather. I mean, she came to school that day in a blue blouse with this blue and white striped sweater over top and jeans and no coat.
00:16:05
Speaker
Well, that's a nice gesture by Robert. Yeah, and a necessary one because listen, I'm cold all the time. So I can only imagine if I were outside in the cold and I knew I didn't have a coat. The bus ride was around 50 miles to get to the park.
00:16:23
Speaker
And the plan was, once the students arrived, for them to hike to Andrews Bald, which is in the Clingmans Dome area. Remember, the Clingmans Dome is the highest peak. So they could examine the trees and the plants, and then they would return to the school bus, which would be waiting in the Forney Ridge parking lot, also in the Clingmans Dome area. And they were to come back to the bus no later than 3.30 PM.
00:16:50
Speaker
Have you ever hiked to the Clingmans Dome? I've not. I've been to the Smoky Mountains many, many, many times, but I've never been to Clingmans Dome. Yeah, I've been to the park several times, but I don't know that I would survive that that hike, honestly. I know. And I think that actual day, it was something like one point eight miles. So it's close to two miles each way.
00:17:20
Speaker
So yeah, it was an exercise right there. So before they get off the bus, the teacher says, you know what? The bus is going to be parked right here. You're going straight to Andrews Bald. Come back no later than 3.30. Don't take any side trails. Don't wander off from the group. Take your sack lunches. But he says, you're welcome to stop as frequently as you need, which I would have been stopping very frequently.
00:17:46
Speaker
Find a nice spot to eat your lunches, you know, enjoy the day, but follow these basic safety rules. And they just paired themselves off like he didn't take them all together. It was just whoever they wanted to go with. That's correct. Yeah. So once they got to the trails, the students did kind of split into several smaller groups because, you know, some groups want to walk faster.
00:18:12
Speaker
Someone wants slower, but as Robert had promised Bob, he did join the same small group as Trenny. Yeah, along with several other students. And they did hike all the way to Andrews Bald. We know they made it up there where they ate their lunch around 1.30 PM. So at this point where two hours from the time that they're supposed to head back and all is well. Okay, during the day,
00:18:42
Speaker
Trini was actually part of several different groups of students. So she began the day in one group that included Robert Simpson. But after lunch, when they were walking back toward the bus, Robert then said that he told Trini that he wanted to walk a little bit slower because he wanted to hunt for a bear.
00:19:08
Speaker
That's weird. I mean, I would like to see one, you know, when we've been there, sometimes we bike Caves Cove in the morning, but then sometimes if we're lazy in the afternoon, we'll just drive it. And sometimes you'll see a bear, you know, from the safety of your car, which I would be fine with. But I don't think I would have one out. If I want to see one, it's going to be from the top of Clingman's Dome, where it cannot get to me.
00:19:36
Speaker
I don't want to hunt one where it's two feet away. Right. Yeah. Trini was not at all interested in doing that either. And so that's why he said that she ran ahead to catch up with another group of students.
00:19:53
Speaker
And she did catch up with this other group of students. We know that for a fact. But not long after she caught up with him, that group, too, decided to stop for a little rest. And this was around 3 p
Trenny's Disappearance and Initial Search
00:20:08
Speaker
.m. So now we're only... Oh, I would be like, we can not rest. Right. I know. Like, time is ticking.
00:20:16
Speaker
We need to be there in five minutes. So that way we're 25 minutes early in case something happens. Yeah. So, you know, we're only 30 minutes away from time to leave. And Trenty is, again, all is well at this point. But Trenty never made it to that loading of the bus at 3.30. Hmm.
00:20:38
Speaker
Instead, she disappeared from the middle of a group of students 30 minutes before departure time and only half a mile from the parking lot. So she is with a group when she vanishes. She's not like by herself. So she was near a group, I should say, when she vanishes. So the students in the group that she caught up to, who recall seeing her,
00:21:06
Speaker
say that Trini acted like she, so she's with them and then she acts like she sees something deep within the woods. And they say that they saw her crouch near the ground to kind of get a closer look at whatever it was. But whatever she was staring at was just to the right off of the trail.
00:21:28
Speaker
Seems a little odd. Yeah, several classmates actually witnessed the same behavior, specifically one website site that is dedicated to Tranny's case by Laura, who runs the blog Canadian Girl 77.
00:21:43
Speaker
wrote the following about the interaction between the other students and Trenny. She said, quote, Angela Beckner, Lisa Michaels, and Bobby Coghill were walking together when Trenny came up behind them. She was walking faster than the group was, so Bobby started walking with her.
00:22:04
Speaker
They caught up with Scott Troy and Anita Rounds. After about five minutes of walking with them, the group sat down to rest. But Trini said that she wanted to keep going. At the time, the group was about half to three quarters of a mile from the Clingmans Dome parking area and the bus. After Trini's departure from this group, the students were watching her.
00:22:31
Speaker
and she stopped, bent down, and then turned right off the trail. David Eastom came up from behind, and when the kids looked back down the trail, Trenny was not there. There were several groups both behind her group and in front of her group." Okay, so just so that I understand,
00:23:01
Speaker
Leaving the original group that she's walking with she catches up with one group But when they sit down to rest her and another student keep walking and they catch up with a second group And it's when she's with that group of kids that she does the weird thing where she bends down And then yeah, because they decide to rest too. Okay, and so she's not she's not about that life and I wonder if
00:23:28
Speaker
Did she just not want to rest or did she seem to be trying to get away from something or someone? We will talk about that because it's unclear.
00:23:40
Speaker
OK. And so, you know, obviously she was standing right beside of this group of students. They all see her looking into the woods, crouching down, kind of turn off to the right of the trail. But the problem is that at that moment when she's kind of starting to continue to walk and kind of going to the right off of the trail,
00:24:04
Speaker
is when that other student comes up and catches up with this group and everybody starts talking to one another, which causes those people who were just looking at Trenny to look away, to greet that other classmate. And then finally, when they turn around and they look, no one sees Trenny anymore.
00:24:24
Speaker
So at first they're thinking, OK, well, maybe she just kind of stepped into the woods because she saw something interesting or something. So they call out to Trenny. No answer.
00:24:35
Speaker
And then others are assuming, well, you know, it's close to time for us to leave. We're super close to the parking lot. Trini probably just didn't want to wait, and she's just gone ahead and gone on to the bus, right? Like, we're going to see her again. Right, because she seemed in a hurry anyway. Yeah, we're going to see her again when we get there.
00:24:55
Speaker
All these students end up continuing to walk toward the bus, and it's really only when they get to the bus that all of the students, including Robert, who had finally, separate from the other groups, made it back from his bear hunt, were present
00:25:10
Speaker
Everybody except for Trini Gibson. And according to David Politis' book, Missing 411, Eastern United States, classmate Anita Bounds noted, quote, She was on the trail when I last saw her. I looked away and when I looked back, Trini was nowhere in sight.
00:25:31
Speaker
I should have been able to see her if she went up the trail." And she went on to say, quote, I checked the area where Trenny was last seen, no trail leading off, very rough, small stream, bush and trees, yelled, but no answer. And that's all the information anyone had.
00:25:54
Speaker
And, you know, for people that aren't familiar with the Great Smoky Mountains, it's literally mountains and not necessarily mountains like Rocky Mountains, where it's, you know, a lot of rock. It's very, very, which I know not all the Rocky Mountains are like that, but the parts that I have seen. But this is very, very dense. Yes, it is. So it's like you can step off the trail five feet.
00:26:24
Speaker
and not be seen, probably less than that, honestly. And so, you know, here, everybody's getting back, except for Trenny.
00:26:32
Speaker
And when the teacher, Mr. Dunlap, made this realization that one of his students hadn't returned, reports say that he then took one of the other students with him to kind of retrace that last bit of the trail looking for Trenny because students saw her half a mile from where the bus is. And so he takes this student to kind of retrace those steps. After searching for Trenny for nearly an hour,
00:27:02
Speaker
the two returned to the bus with no new information. See, and that's where I differ from Mr. Dunlap. I know we don't know how we would react in situations like this, but I know for sure I would not have waited as a teacher an hour to call. I mean, if it was my own child, then maybe I could say, oh, we'll find her or we'll find him.
00:27:24
Speaker
Like it'll be fine cause they call Maggie, but if it's somebody else's child, I'm like, I'm calling immediately. Yeah. And it wasn't until they returned after that hour that Dunlap called the national park service to report trinity missing. So that report was filed around 4.30 PM. Also what time does this school let out parents just sitting in the parking lot? Like where the heck's my kid?
00:27:50
Speaker
Yeah, because again, there's no permission slip. So how would they know? Right. I have no idea. So some parents may not even know. It was after he filed that report around 430 that Dunlap then sent the bus back to the high school for the other students to get home. And Mr. Dunlap actually stayed behind to help in the search for Trenny.
00:28:13
Speaker
He was joined within the first few hours by close to 20 other volunteers who were helping to look for Trenny. And obviously these adults are worried. And I don't know if their minds immediately went straight to something like abduction or whether they were initially worried more that Trenny had wandered off of the trail because the students saw her kind of go off to the right.
00:28:38
Speaker
and that she'd either gotten lost or that she'd had an accident and, you know, maybe she was now somehow incapacitated and unable to alert anybody for help. That's why when they yelled her name, she didn't answer. You know, I would be thinking about all of these different scenarios.
00:28:55
Speaker
Yeah. And you said it was unseasonably cold, so she could potentially be at threat for hypothermia if she's out there after the sun goes down. I mean, there's a lot of different risk factors there. Yes, there are. And in the meantime,
00:29:09
Speaker
The school bus arrived home for the students to either go home or get rides home from their parents. And it wasn't until the bus returned without Trenny on board that Trenny's mom learned her daughter was missing. I read that she didn't find out until 8 PM. That is also something that shouldn't have happened.
00:29:32
Speaker
And to make matters worse, Trenny's father was actually on his way home from a business trip. And so he wouldn't find out until he returned home because, you know, we're in the seventies. This is long before cell phones. It's not like Trenny's mom could call him, you know, and tell him what had happened. Which would be, I think, torturous. Yeah, just waiting for him to get home and knowing you can't really
00:30:00
Speaker
I mean, I guess she could have gone, but I'm sure she wanted to wait and he go with her. So you're just stuck there. Right. And she did wait, but you can bet that as soon as Trenny's mom informed her husband, the two of them were on the road to the Smokies. They got there around midnight and they brought with them some of Trenny's clothing so that search dogs could get her scent.
00:30:24
Speaker
In the time between Trenny's disappearance and the arrival of her parents, not much had really been discovered. I mean, it was October. So like you just mentioned, the weather was cold.
00:30:38
Speaker
But there's still fall foliage on the trees and those two factors combined made sighting by aerial view impossible because of the foliage and searching on foot difficult because of the cold and the weather conditions and especially with nightfall because with the darkness
00:30:58
Speaker
came a pickup in the wind, heavy rain, and more dense fog. And with the cold, there's also now frost on the ground, which made the terrain even more treacherous because it was slippery. And just let me tell you, so I went hiking with my dad and Anthony, this is like several months ago, but it had been very, very rainy until the day we went pretty much.
00:31:27
Speaker
And typically when I used to go hiking in the woods when I lived in Eastern Kentucky, I just went in like normal tennis shoes. But where we were going, there weren't really trails to go. So we bought hiking shoes. And even with the hiking shoes that have like pretty much clawed on the bottom of the shoe, I was still slipping at some points because it was so muddy and those leaves turn into like... Oh, they're so slippery. It's like a slick as ice pretty much. Yeah.
00:31:57
Speaker
But I can't. Reports that I read said that the search was called off for the night around 3 a.m. And that had to have been so hard for Trinity's parents to know because they just got there. Yeah. They got there at midnight. And, you know, thinking about those risks like hypothermia and yet here's law enforcement. And I get why they did it because it is so treacherous.
00:32:22
Speaker
But then to say, well, we're calling off the search for the night. We'll pick up again in the morning. Oh, that's got to be so hard as a parent.
00:32:33
Speaker
But dogs were brought in, both German shepherds and bloodhounds, to see if they could pick up on Trini's scent. About half of the dog teams did pick up on her scent. But they all kind of went in different directions or hit in different directions. So one of the dog teams hit on this area of the park that intersected with the Appalachian Trail. Another dog team
00:33:01
Speaker
hit on Trenny's scent at the base of Clingman's Dome, but it was the third dog team that caused searchers some concern because the third place where the dogs tracked Trenny's scent was near a road
Theories Around Trenny's Disappearance
00:33:19
Speaker
and Trenny's scent abruptly stopped right at the road. So then we're assuming that she potentially got into a car with someone? That is one potential theory.
00:33:32
Speaker
Yeah. And I was not able to corroborate this in all of my research, but I will say that in some of my sources, they mentioned that just about the only thing searchers were able to locate were some cigarette butts and empty or half empty beer cans by the roadside where Trenty's scent stopped. And again,
00:34:00
Speaker
not according to all of my sources, but some of them did mention that similarly branded cigarette butts and beer cans were also found near the trail where Trini was last seen by her classmates when she kind of veered off to the right. So then there could potentially be a connection between
00:34:21
Speaker
who she's with and these cigarettes and beer cans. Right. And so a lot of people question, is that what she saw in the woods when she's kind of crouching down? And so she kind of goes to whoever it is that she sees in there with these items. We don't know. That's just one theory. And again, even those items themselves, this story has, Trenny's case has kind of become
00:34:48
Speaker
lore in a lot of ways because rumors and the passage of time. And so it's hard a lot of times to tell exactly what is fact and what is fiction. But at the height of the search for Trini, there had been more than 200 people searching. And the spur road that led from Klingman's Dome
00:35:14
Speaker
um, or up to Clingmans Dome was actually closed by law enforcement to prevent drivers from going that way and potentially destroying any evidence. So good idea. Yeah, that's a really good idea. But only four days after Trenty's disappearance by October 12th, the search was scaled back to 20 people and it lasted only a couple more weeks after that.
00:35:44
Speaker
The search was halted completely at that point in the beginning of November, 1976, and it didn't resume until the following spring on April 18th, 1977. So they're basically like, okay, well, winter is coming. We are going to have to halt the search until spring. And you know, I think that's heartbreaking for
00:36:08
Speaker
her family and probably for a lot of people that were looking for her because you're so invested in trying to find her but you know for her family I know they had to feel that essentially people were saying well
00:36:20
Speaker
We're giving up for right now. And even if she's could potentially still be out there, there's nothing we can do until April. And you know, Trini's dad actually stated, he said, quote, the hardest part is waiting, waiting without knowing where my daughter is. And that has to be so true. And what's sad is even when it was resumed in the spring of 1977, at that point, searchers still only look for Trini another two weeks.
00:36:50
Speaker
And when they still didn't find anything, they called off the search again. But what's interesting is that park rangers have actually stated their belief, which is that Trenny is not in the Smoky Mountains National Park. And I don't know how they can be so convinced of that. Knowing how massive the park itself is because it's over half a million acres.
00:37:19
Speaker
Yeah. So unless they have some type of proof, she did leave the park with someone. Yeah. And how are you going to definitively say that? I know. Because I think it'd be difficult to thoroughly search half a million acres. Yes, it would. Yeah. I'm not as convinced as they seem to be. And interestingly, even though one of the places that the dogs tracked, Trenny sent was to the base of the Clingmans Dome tower, the tower itself wasn't searched for Trenny at the time.
00:37:50
Speaker
Really? Which I know. You would think everywhere where these dogs had tracked her scent, you would think those would be the places searched most thoroughly, but they hadn't. And in terms of clues that were found in the Smokies and Trinity's case, everything I've told you is all we have. I mean, even up through to today. But just because we don't have clues,
00:38:16
Speaker
It doesn't mean that we don't have theories and we have several. So let's go ahead and talk about those now. OK. OK. So theory number one is that Trini left of her own accord. Yeah.
00:38:33
Speaker
One classmate, Kim Pouncey, who was reportedly close to Trenty, said in a 2017 interview with Appalachian Unsolved that it's her belief that Trenty just wanted to get away.
00:38:49
Speaker
From what? Yeah, I don't know. She did not clarify that. But she said in the interview, quote, my feeling is that somebody was waiting for her, like in the park. There was a parking lot very close. I've always felt like Trini planned it. And that was her way out, end quote.
00:39:11
Speaker
And it is true that nobody in the park, nobody in the park, and there were lots of visitors. This is the most visited national park in the entirety of the United States reported that they saw a struggle, heard a scream, nothing. I will say that. But she did say early on in the investigation that she was really close to her family. So we think that she would just leave them. I know.
00:39:38
Speaker
that people who believe this theory say so. And there were people who reportedly cited Trenny afterward, but none of those reports panned out. One couple swore that they saw a young girl who looked just like Trenny, who had knocked on their door and had asked to borrow money and to use their phone. And then the couple said that she had shown up in this car that was filled with young men.
00:40:08
Speaker
And they said that when they denied the girls request that the girl got angry and kind of stormed her way back to the vehicle, only to ride away with all those young men. And the couple swear that the girl they saw was trendy, but law enforcement obviously aren't convinced of this sighting. So then I guess if we're going with theory number one, we're saying when she crouches down, she looks to the right that she's meeting someone and she sees him.
00:40:36
Speaker
or her. And then of course, hence the hit of her scent near the road, if she left willingly. I just wonder, so if she didn't meet someone when she looks to the right and just goes, how familiar is she with the area that she was able to find the road, which I guess could explain why her scent is in a couple of different places around the park. Maybe she's trying to find wherever she's supposed to go, but like,
00:41:05
Speaker
I don't know. I just, I don't know. Potentially, but I will say she'd never been to the Smoky Mountains before. Okay. So it is not likely that she would have tried to then walk to the roadway by herself. Right. And, you know, obviously to play devil's advocate, there are a couple of issues with this theory.
00:41:29
Speaker
The first problem is that her class didn't even know where they were going. Okay. That was also what I was about to say. So how would she have known to tell anybody to meet her there to run away with them? Unless she just goes with a random stranger. Yeah. I mean, potentially, but I don't see her doing that either. Yeah. So she can't tell anybody to meet her there because she doesn't even know where they're going.
00:41:58
Speaker
So that seems to be a big problem for this theory. Exactly. Then the second problem is that that morning, as soon as she heard that the field trip was still on, she left her purse in her mom's car. And I mean, I would think that if this were either some pre-planned rendezvous
00:42:20
Speaker
Or even if I were, you know, making a spur of the moment decision and I think, oh, when I go on this trip, it's going to be the perfect opportunity to leave the trip. She didn't even want to go on. Right. That's true. But you would think that you would have at least taken your purse and not left the money that you had in your wallet that you wouldn't have left, you know, without access to the nearly thousand dollars that she had in her bank account that she'd saved for saving up for a car.
00:42:49
Speaker
You know what I mean? Like, if you're planning, if you're thinking, oh, this will be the perfect opportunity to get away, why would you leave without money? Right. And we know she's saving it because she's trying to get that car so she would have a little bit of money. Yeah. And plus, like you just mentioned, when you were talking about how familiar she was, she'd never been to the park before. So my gut is not telling me that she would have chosen this location and which to go out into this great big world on her own.
00:43:19
Speaker
Yeah, dressed in the sweater and blue jeans. Yeah. And so part of me wonders if that friend who's kind of convinced herself that Trenny left of her own accord, that she's convinced herself of that because that's easier to accept. Yeah, because then Trenny could still be alive. Exactly. She'd be happy. Yeah, just out there somewhere still.
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Ready to combat dehydration? Track here today and feel the difference for yourself. Use code coffeeandcases for 20% off your order. Okay Maggie, theory number two is that Trenny was the victim of an unfortunate accident.
00:48:06
Speaker
Interesting. So there are some people who believe that Trini may have gone off the trail. Like maybe she needed to use the bathroom or some other logical reason that would cause somebody to willingly leave a group of people and perhaps even try to go semi deep into the woods so as not to be seen by others. Okay. But I guess my question here is,
00:48:34
Speaker
You're 30 minutes away from loading the bus. Yeah. Are there restrooms near this parking lot where she's going to be? Or is she going to have to hold it all the way back to school? Because that could be a difference. There are bathrooms in the parking lot. And that's one of my hang ups with this theory too.
00:48:53
Speaker
But according to this theory, maybe Trini went deep enough into the woods to use the bathroom. Maybe she couldn't hold it any longer. And that's why she said, you know what? You guys are resting. I'm not resting. I'm going to keep going. But then she's like, oh, you know what? I can't. I need to find a spot. And maybe that's why she's crouching down and she's looking.
00:49:16
Speaker
But maybe she goes far enough into the woods that she gets lost or she loses sight of her classmates. And then as a result, she kind of, you know, gets turned around, doesn't know which way to walk. And maybe even thinking that she's walking back towards the trail, she's actually walking in a different direction altogether. Yeah. Cause we talked about that early on, you know, you could get just a few feet off the trail and the trail disappears and you would have no idea really where you are.
00:49:44
Speaker
right and if you've never been here before you really would have no idea so you know they argue that maybe once that happened you know she could have gotten injured she may have succumbed to the cold weather overnight i mean anything of the sort but i guess though if she's just stepping off the trail
00:50:03
Speaker
you know, for something that let's say she does have to pee and she's just stepping off the trail enough to get out of the side of her classmates. If they're calling for her, even if she had fallen, why wouldn't she answer? That's a wonderful point. And again, unless she had hurt herself and was like knocked unconscious or something like that, then otherwise I, I don't know why she wouldn't have answered and
00:50:32
Speaker
you know, they're due back at the buses in less than 30 minutes. I'm just thinking, okay, if she's at this spot about 30 minutes before they're having to be back at the buses and they're still a half a mile away, I can't imagine that she would have gone
00:50:55
Speaker
I don't know, have been gone maybe more than 15 minutes. So give five minutes of that to use the bathroom. And then she'd only been walking about 10 minutes after that before her classmates start yelling for her. I imagine that she would have either heard them talking because I'm, I bet they were loud because teenagers are loud. I made it back in the right direction. Or if she'd only been walking for 10 minutes and like you said, she would have heard her classmates yelling her name and would have responded.
00:51:25
Speaker
unless she hurt herself. But for me, I would have waited until I got back to an actual restroom and the parking lot. Because unless I'm about to burst, I would definitely want an actual toilet and toilet paper. Yeah, I would have just ran. Like if I'm about to legitimately pee my pants and I'm that close to a bathroom, just move out of my way. You're going to see me running for like one of the only times in my life. Move.
00:51:57
Speaker
The fastest I've ever seen Maggie go right there. Theory number three is that Trini met with foul play. Now, this theory has many possibilities. So I just wanted to cover several of them.
00:52:14
Speaker
So with this theory, one potential outcome was that Trenny met with a stranger who harmed her. So this I thought of initially when you said that her scent crossed the Appalachian Trail, but there's a lot of people that hike that trail. Yes.
00:52:34
Speaker
I mean, I know the National Park is visited frequently, but the Appalachian Trail runs not just in the Great Smoky Mountains. So, I mean, they could have been from anywhere and just passed through that portion at the right time. Yeah. And then here they see a young girl who seems alone and lost.
00:52:54
Speaker
I mean, yes, I would agree with that. And the teacher, Mr. Dunlop, he actually reported seeing smaller size tennis shoe prints at the intersection with the Appalachian Trail. But I don't know if that was ever verified, if they ever confirmed that the prints were the same size as Trenny's or if it was even followed up on. But that's just one potential theory.
00:53:22
Speaker
Alternatively, she could have spotted somebody smoking and drinking in the woods and maybe decided to approach because again, these were different times. It could have been classmates. It could have been strangers, you know, and maybe they look like they're having a good time if she does smoke.
00:53:42
Speaker
And she didn't have cigarettes on her. Maybe she's like, hey, I'm going to try to bum a cigarette off of them or something. Right. And so then those strangers could have lured her to another location or even made up some kind of ruse like, oh, the road's right over here. Let's just catch a ride and we'll drop you back off at your bus in the parking lot.
00:54:04
Speaker
you know what i mean and then that would explain why there's potentially similar cigarette butts and beer cans near the road you know why nobody heard a scream or anything like that and if that's the case then she might have willingly gotten into a car so nobody sees anything like a struggle and it doesn't have to be like
00:54:26
Speaker
I know we automatically, or I do at least, which is probably bad. But in this case, if I'm picturing a man trying to lure her away from the trail, I picture, you know, a creepy like 53 year old man, but that's not really the case. I mean, it could have been someone close to her age. Yeah. That lured her away and that would make him more trustworthy to her because he's close to her age. Right. Yeah.
00:54:55
Speaker
To play devil's advocate for this one, though, I will say it would still have been pretty brave to lure Trini away with so many teenagers so close on the trail and so many other potential visitors to the park who could have sighted them. True. While our exploration of this theory has so far kind of focused on the vague perpetrator, there are two names that came to mind for those close to Trini's
00:55:24
Speaker
family. The first name was Kelvin Bowman.
Suspects and Investigations
00:55:31
Speaker
Kelvin was a fellow student at Trenties High School who had had a crush on Trenty in the past and had purportedly been stalking her.
00:55:43
Speaker
He came onto police radar after Trenny's disappearance when Trenny's parents told them about their, maybe reminded them of their past interactions with Billman. You see Maggie, several months before, Trenny's mom Hope had heard a noise in their house and had gone to find the source of this noise.
00:56:08
Speaker
when Hope happened upon Kelvin, who had broken into their family home. Absolutely not. Yes. Well, Hope shot Kelvin in the foot. Good for her. Yeah, because he's an intruder. And of course, Kelvin was arrested for breaking and entering. And while he was tried for the crime and found guilty,
00:56:32
Speaker
During that trial, he looked right at Trendy, even though she's not the one who shot him. That was Hope. He looked right at Trendy and threatened her life as soon as he got released.
00:56:47
Speaker
And this is like on the stand in the courtroom, he says. Yeah. And that's what I read. So he was, when he was being tried for the crime, he said this. And Kelvin was sentenced to two years in a juvenile facility, but he only served six months in jail. And by the time Trenty went missing, he had been released. Hmm.
00:57:10
Speaker
So a lot of people close to the family were like, you need to look into this guy. But the teacher, Mr. Dunlap, he swore that no one could have followed them because none of the students even knew where they were going. OK, but could this guy not have just been in his car waiting for the bus to pull out or perhaps? He totally could have been. Like we said, he checks in. Was he at school that day?
00:57:39
Speaker
Okay, so first let me say this. Those who believe that it could be Kelvin, they bring up those pastorettes and they do believe that he easily could have just followed the bus knowing that Trenty was on. Because even if he is marked as present that day, first of all, it's 1976. So I don't know how attendance worked then. Did you take it in between each class or was it just like your homework? Right, did you just take it at the beginning?
00:58:08
Speaker
I do not know. And if they're going out of the school building to smoke, how closely are they being monitored and how easily can they walk in and out of school? So perhaps he did check in and then they say, you know, all of the horticulture class, please report to the bus doc. And he just leaves with them at that time and just goes to his car. Because I didn't know what other classes all of my students were taking.
00:58:37
Speaker
I mean, even now, if somebody said all of the AP chemistry students come to the media center for a meeting and I had a student get up and go, I mean, unless I have reason to doubt and kind of look up their schedule to see, I have no idea.
00:58:54
Speaker
But the principal did testify to the fact that it was his belief that Kelvin was present at school that day based upon attendance records. But like we just said, I have no idea how attendance was taken back then. Another potential theory for who might know more than they're letting on
00:59:15
Speaker
is our resident bear hunter, Robert Simpson. Okay, yeah. I thought about this as well, and I had a question that I want to ask about this before you get into the theory. So he leaves, or she leaves him because he's going on the bear hunt. And then he is the last person back on the bus, correct? Or thereabouts? I don't know if he's the last person back, but I know that no one else walked back with him.
00:59:45
Speaker
And so I wonder then if the group that Trini was with made it back to the bus before he did. I do not know. I do not know. But I mean, like you just said, he had been with Trini on the walk to Andrews Bald. But no one else among her peers had actually walked back
01:00:08
Speaker
to the parking lot from Forney Creek Trail alongside Robert. And that does throw his alibi into question because there's no way to verify its validity because he says he was by himself. Right. So a lot of people question, okay, if Robert had been asked by Trenny's older brother, Bob, to specifically keep an eye on Trenny all day,
01:00:36
Speaker
Then he's going to let her walk off on her own because he wanted to, quote unquote, hunt bears. That seems weird. But. And we have that account from the brother, like the brother says, I asked Robert to watch my sister. I mean, it does seem weird that he would let her walk away. But I mean, if we're going with this theory, then he didn't let her walk away, right?
01:01:05
Speaker
What do you mean? Oh, right. Then he wasn't exactly right. But it would have to have been maybe he did let her initially walk away because she made those other kids. Yeah, she does go ahead and walk ahead and meets up with that other group who's just ahead of them. But then could that have been who she saw in the woods when she crouches down and that's why she so willingly goes. Yes, that is definitely a potential.
01:01:35
Speaker
belief. So, I mean, okay, he could have been thinking, listen, Trinity 16, she should be fine. There are clearly marked trails. There are students up ahead. And we do know that she did meet up with another group of students and we're only 30 minutes away from the time that it's time to leave. Exactly.
01:01:55
Speaker
So those who want to defend Robert argue that, you know, he was nowhere around when Trenny was last seen. So if she had left him behind her and kind of scurried up ahead, then how could it have been Robert who she saw in the woods when she caught up to the other group? You know, I hadn't thought about that unless he quickly makes it through the trail, but he's going to have to be off trail.
01:02:21
Speaker
Right. But I mean, I will admit, though, I don't know how long Trini had been with the other group who was resting. Like, I don't know how long she paused there while they're resting before she says, I'm going to go on ahead. Oh, so maybe Robert did catch up. Yeah, because I mean, there were people in other groups who were behind that group who also managed to catch up. That's true. Right. So he could have caught up as well.
01:02:50
Speaker
And like you said, maybe Trini spotted him and that's why she went off trail as well. But it wasn't just Robert not being with the group when Trini went missing that makes some people question his involvement in her disappearance. It's what happened after. So in the days following Trini's disappearance, when her parents were still in the Smoky Mountains searching for their daughter,
01:03:21
Speaker
Robert, without being asked to do so, went to the Gibson home, where at least Trenny's grandmother and her younger sister Tina were still staying, where he was screening phone calls that came in, as in answering the phone and jotting down whatever message people had. So for a lot of people, that action is suspicious because it's just a little weird.
01:03:49
Speaker
Yeah, it may be the actions of a concerned friend, but I mean, Trenny's grandmother was perfectly capable of taking the calls herself and jotting down notes. And were there like an influx of telephone calls coming in? I'm guessing that there were several calls. Yeah. But if he wanted to help,
01:04:14
Speaker
Then I would think the logical way to help as a concerned friend is search, not answer telephone calls. Yeah. That's why a lot of people think, okay, well it could be the actions of a concerned friend, but it could also be the actions of somebody trying to prevent information from getting back to Trenny's family. Then there were some off-putting remarks that Robert reportedly said to Trenny's younger sister.
01:04:44
Speaker
He said, quote, if Kelvin Bowman has Trenny, he will kill her. If he doesn't have her, I think she must have run off with some horny hitchhiker, end quote.
01:04:58
Speaker
Which seems okay the Kelvin Bowman comment I can understand right cuz He threatened except except except why I say it to the little sister. Yeah. Yeah, but the second part Yeah, it's just real weird
01:05:15
Speaker
I agree. I don't know. Either part of that comment is unconscionable to me, because I mean, who says something like that? But those who think that Robert is involved in whatever happened to Trini, they say, you know, isn't it convenient that he's immediately trying to blame somebody else, right? And that he immediately went to murder rather than Trini just being lost in the park?
01:05:42
Speaker
That's true because when people are being interviewed early on in missing persons investigations, we always talk about, are they talking in past or present? So I know she is a good person versus she was a good person. And would you immediately go to, oh, she's dead versus she's just hurt. And yeah, and who says that to a little kid? Yeah.
01:06:07
Speaker
But that second part, I'm with you. That second part of that comment, that makes me so uncomfortable because it's sexualizing Trenny and it's almost putting the action on her. Like she ran off with some horny hitchhiker. I don't know. It's just off putting in the least.
01:06:30
Speaker
And I think it, yeah. And it just, like you said, puts the action on her and makes the motivation for her like sexually driven. And I just think that's weird. Yeah, I do too. Yeah. But it was something more tangible that made Trenty's family convinced that Robert knew more than he let on.
01:06:58
Speaker
And I don't know if you have anything that's like this Maggie, but do you have an item like a key chain, a necklace, a chapstick, something that you always carry with you? Yeah. Cause like I wear my gold cross necklace every day. Every day I wear it. Well, Trini had a few items like that. One was okay. Hold on. If you tell me, if you're about to tell me,
01:07:28
Speaker
that one of these items turn up after she has disappeared, I will be speechless. More than one do. Okay. So one of her items was a Stanley brand comb. And they said she always kept it with her, usually in her back pocket. And I actually, yeah, I was gonna say I asked Rodney about this because, you know, he's older than I am. And I was like,
01:07:56
Speaker
How many people had carried combs with them in the 70s? And he was like, everybody, usually in their back pocket. And I was like, okay. So yeah, she always had it with her, usually in her back pocket. And yeah, super common trend in the 70s. And this wasn't some small cheap comb.
01:08:16
Speaker
This was a heavy thick Stanley comb that I read was specifically designed for long hair. And I also read that it was a special gift that came from Trenny's mom who had bought one for Trenny and one for her younger sister Tina. And this was an item that Trenny would, she was never without it. I mean, if you saw Trenny, she had her comb.
01:08:43
Speaker
But she also had certain jewelry that she had gotten for Christmas and birthday gifts, a ring and a star sapphire necklace. And Maggie, she loved the jewelry so much that reports said she wouldn't even take them off to let a friend try them on. So like if her friend said, oh, can I try that ring on? She'd be like, I'd really prefer not to. Absolutely not. Yeah. Herein lies the problem, Maggie. After Trenny went missing,
01:09:10
Speaker
Trenny's brother, Bob, got into Robert Simpson's car where he saw there, just lying on Robert's dash, Trenny's recognizable comb. OK. OK. OK.
01:09:31
Speaker
Yeah. Was this, I'm trying to rationalize this. So was this a comb that many people would have had, you know, were they all the same or did Stanley combs may become a different colors and Trinity and hers was like, you know, a specific color or it was everyone's the same. So you said it's recognizable though. Yeah. So obviously there's has to be something about it. It's missing some teeth or something that he's able to tell that it's her.
01:10:00
Speaker
It's not that. And I don't think that it was in any crazy color or anything like that. But I did read that this Stanley comb was a more expensive comb. Okay. And so I think that's why plus the fact that when Bob sees this comb and he questions Robert about it,
01:10:30
Speaker
Robert just kind of nonchalantly tells Bob, oh, Trini asked me to hold it for her. So he doesn't deny. Right. Because he could have just said, oh, that's not hers. That's mine. Right. Right. But he doesn't do that. He says, oh, she asked me to hold it. OK. I question if that were true. Why didn't he give it back to her family or at least tell them about it?
01:11:00
Speaker
Right? Because everything from that last day would have been replaying in my mind. And especially if I'm Robert, if I didn't have anything to do with what happened to Trenny, and then I see this comb because she asked me to hold it for her, then I would be like, Oh my gosh, I need to give this to her family. Yeah. Or maybe even he saw it along the trail. That would be, that would be very important to share. Right.
01:11:28
Speaker
But Robert didn't do any of those things. And some sources even said that classmates said that he had been using the comb himself in the days. No, absolutely not. That's weird. Yeah.
01:11:43
Speaker
Then came the jewelry, Maggie. Both the ring and the necklace somehow came into the possession of another sophomore girl at Trenny's High School. And if you tell me when they were asked where they got this jewelry and Robert's name comes up, I will not have a way to rationalize that, I don't think. Okay.
01:12:11
Speaker
Robert's name doesn't come up. But when the girl was questioned how she came into possession of this jewelry, which I didn't read, I didn't read in any of my research exactly what explanation she gave, but I did read everywhere that whatever reason it was that she gave did not, quote unquote, satisfactorily explain why she had them.
01:12:40
Speaker
And so whatever reason she gave, it didn't make any sense. Plus Robert then asserts himself into the situation and comes forward to give a reason
01:12:57
Speaker
why this girl has trenny's jewelry so he said that trenny had taken the jewelry off while she was in the bathroom before the hike and had asked a classmate though not the girl later found to have the jewelry in her possession but another sophomore classmate to
01:13:14
Speaker
quote unquote hold it for her but again why would she not have come forward and been like oh mom right mom and dad gibson she went to the restroom and asked me to hold this i thought you would want it back exactly you know and i was i'm trying to think okay why might she have taken the jewelry off is there any logical explanation
01:13:35
Speaker
Maybe if she thought she was going to be digging in the dirt with the plant life, she would have taken the jewelry off. But first of all, I didn't read about any students actually collecting plants or digging in the dirt and getting dirty. And also
01:13:51
Speaker
if trenny didn't even want other people to try on her jewelry she definitely wouldn't have given her jewelry to another girl who would also potentially be getting dirty in the dirt to quote unquote hold it for her and okay i could understand the ring because you know we're supposed to take our rings off when we wash our hands which i don't but you know we're supposed to and um or i don't always but the necklace that why would you need to take that off to go to the bathroom yeah you wouldn't
01:14:20
Speaker
And I really find it unbelievable that Trini would have asked different people to hold on to all of the possessions that had meaning to her. Like here, Robert, you hold on to this. Here, you girls. Yeah, that doesn't make any sense to me. Some people have theorized that
01:14:46
Speaker
Perhaps Robert was interested in Trini, but that she didn't reciprocate those feelings. And so they think, okay, is that why she actually was walking faster and left Robert behind?
01:14:58
Speaker
You know, maybe he did something kind of untoward and she was just wanting to get away. But then if that's the case, it definitely wouldn't have been likely that if she saw Robert in the woods to the right of the trail, that she would have decided that she would have walked off. Yeah, she would have stayed with the group, not wanting to be alone with them again. So there's that.
01:15:24
Speaker
True Crime Researcher Canadian Girl 77, who was mentioned earlier, has done extensive research, like I said, on Trini Gibson's case and has actually spoken with the family quite often in the past. She reported rumors of threats among the students at the high school in the form of a don't talk or you might go missing as well nature.
01:15:52
Speaker
Who was giving these talks? We don't know. So, but that would seem to say, obviously, it's not a stranger. She didn't go off on her own. It wasn't an accident, because why would there then be these threats if they if there were indeed threats of that nature?
01:16:15
Speaker
Then there are other possibilities with the theory of foul play. I mean, after all, some people wonder, you know, could it be the case that maybe Trenny liked a boy in her class and she was told potentially by Robert, by somebody else, or even by a group of classmates.
01:16:31
Speaker
that this person she had a crush on would be waiting for her in the woods to go meet him. And so they wonder maybe that's who Trenty spotted and left the trail to go see. But if that's the case, I mean, it would explain the reports of the threats also.
01:16:49
Speaker
It wouldn't explain to me how an entire group of people had kept what happened to Trenia secret for all these years without the conscience of at least one of them finally realizing that the truth needs to be told. So I guess in this scenario,
01:17:08
Speaker
They didn't know she was in danger. They just know she likes this guy and he's on the outskirts of this trail and they're like, oh, Timmy's waiting for you just right there. And she bends down to look for him. And then that's when her mishap happens. Right. Whatever it was. I know this is probably
01:17:29
Speaker
May speak volumes for me, but if that had happened and I was like, you know thinking my best friend is Lacking Tyler whatever and Tyler's waiting for her in the woods and she goes and meets them And then she doesn't come back when the bus leaves. I would 100% be like, um, mr. Dunlap. She went to me Tyler Yeah, exactly. I know I know I would too So Maggie, what are your thoughts? Okay, so
01:18:01
Speaker
Okay. Well, one, have any actual suspects been named in the case? No. In these theories? No. Well...
01:18:12
Speaker
I mean, it's just a bad look for Robert. I'm going to be honest. Maybe the comb wasn't hers and he just freaked out in the moment and tried to play it off. You know, but that just to me looks bad. And then how did this random girl get her jewelry? Did she have a female enemy at school? Could there have been more than one person involved? Maybe, you know, maybe Robert is kind of jealous. Like, was it Kelvin? Was that his name? Yeah.
01:18:43
Speaker
And, you know, kind of snapped a little. Also the Kelvin theory is a little disturbing to think of that he threatened her when he was on the stand or in a courtroom. But I mean, I feel like we definitely just need more evidence in this case. And I don't know how that's going to happen at this point. Right. I definitely believe that it was foul play. That's what my gut tells me.
01:19:13
Speaker
And I feel like if Robert were not involved, and by the way, at this point, both Kelvin and Robert have passed away. If Robert were not involved, my gut makes me feel as though he knew more than he told her family.
01:19:40
Speaker
Did someone see something that day that they've never reported out of fear? If so, I pray that they have the courage to come forward now. It's never too late to do what's right.
Legal and Emotional Aftermath
01:19:53
Speaker
In 1981, Trenny's family spoke of how disappointed they were that Trenny was not protected better while on a school field trip. I mean, there was only one chaperone. The parents weren't notified
01:20:08
Speaker
until the bus returned back to the school with the other students. About five hours after Trenny was first identified as missing is when her family finally heard the news. The family sued the school board, the superintendent, and the teacher in charge of the trip for $350,000 for negligence. However, I didn't read in any of my research the result of that suit to know if the family won, if there were a settlement,
01:20:37
Speaker
though I did read that the teacher, soon after the disappearance, left the district. I also know the effect Trenny's loss had on the family. They tried moving so they wouldn't be confronted daily with the painful memories of the empty room, of past birthdays, Christmases, Thanksgiving holidays, and the like spent with their sweet Trenny. The move didn't lessen their pain, though.
01:21:06
Speaker
And Trenny's parents, as the parents of the missing and murdered often do, divorced. And much of Trenny's family has passed in the years since her disappearance. Brother Bob passed in 2000 when he was only 42. Her dad passed away in 2004 at 67 years old. Her baby sister Tina passed in 2016 when she was only 54.
01:21:32
Speaker
Pain and the unknown take years off of the lives of the family members left behind in the wake. The stress level continually felt is unfathomable. If you're a parent, you know what it feels like to turn around and your child is out of eyesight for even 30 seconds. Now imagine that feeling for the rest of your life. It's not something I'd wish on my worst enemy.
01:22:00
Speaker
Someone out there knows something, saw something, heard something in passing, was threatened then. But there's also that same someone out there who can finally step up and do what's right. Anyone with information is asked to call the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation at 615-744-4000.
01:22:28
Speaker
Again, please like and join our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast to continue the conversation and see images related to this episode.
Listener Engagement and Community
01:22:36
Speaker
As always, follow us on Twitter, at casescoffee, on Instagram, at coffee cases podcast, or you can always email us suggestions to coffeeandcasespodcastatgmail.com. Please tell your friends about our podcast so more people can be reached to possibly help bring some closure to these families. Don't forget to rate our show and leave us a comment as well. We hope to hear from you soon.
01:22:58
Speaker
Stay together. Stay safe. We'll see you next week.
01:23:21
Speaker
It's love notes with Maggie and Allison. And we actually have lots of love, like love, love, love this week going out to a lot of people. And one is going out to William who wrote us just to say, quote, just started listening to your podcast.
01:23:40
Speaker
I enjoy listening while I'm driving around checking and operating wastewater treatment plants. I started listening from your first episode, so I'm way behind, but just wanted to say, keep digging. The truth is out there." End quote. Well, William, I know it might take you a while to get caught up on all these episodes and hear your shout out, but when you do get caught up, it will be here also.
01:24:10
Speaker
you have I think one of the hardest jobs is operating something at a wastewater treatment plant and I just want you to know I appreciate your hard work and respect the job that you do for us every day because there's not many people that would
01:24:30
Speaker
be able to do the things that you do, so thank you. Yeah, yes. We also want to send love to Amy, who reached out to say, quote, heard your latest episode this morning. It was excellent, as always. Thank you so much for sharing these cases with us, end quote. And, you know, we just we want to do everything in our power to do what we can to help. And it means a lot when our listeners like Amy reach out and say that they recognize it.
01:24:59
Speaker
Yeah. And Mucha Love is going out to Sren82 who reached out to us on Instagram to say that she discovered our podcast from the Mother's Day special, which was really fun to collaborate on. And she wrote in part, quote, I've been binging since then. And I'm on episode 36. Maggie was talking about things that people don't tell you when you become a teacher. I'm in tears and just wanted to say thank you for all you do.
01:25:26
Speaker
The podcast is incredible, but your real gift was not only teaching, but the love you showed your students. Teachers are angels on earth. Have an amazing day and thank you again for all you've done to mold the next generation. Keep up the great work."
01:25:47
Speaker
We've got one more love note going out to Mary Beth who reached out to us to say, quote, I stumbled upon your podcast a while back and have caught up on all your cases at this point. I love how you cover cases that are not typically covered on other podcasts and how your focus is to bring light to cases that are unsolved in the hopes to bring answers to families of those they have lost.
01:26:11
Speaker
I also love how you take time to talk to the families to obtain more information. Not a lot of podcasts bother to obtain this information or perspective." And again, thank you so much, Mary Beth, because every conversation we have with family, it's very hard emotionally, but it helps us to understand the case. It helps them to know that there's somebody out there who cares.
01:26:37
Speaker
And every listener, like Mary Beth, like so many others on our show, show those families that as well. So thank you for reaching out and sending us that message, because it means the world. And with that, all of our love is going out to each and every one of you. Until next week, Sleuth Hounds.