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US National Park Where 5 People Vanished Believed To Be Home To ‘Feral Cannibals’
‘Feral cannibals’ are rumored to be hiding in a national park where five people have vanished without explanation.
For generations, stories have circulated about ‘wild people’ surviving deep in the wilderness, completely cut off from modern society.
Over time, speculation that ‘feral cannibals’ could be living inside a US national park has continued to grow, with countless discussions appearing online.
One person writes: “Too many people go missing. This is one explanation for what may have happened.”
Another says: “I have always felt afraid in national parks, like I wasn’t alone and now I know why.”
“Too many people disappear in national parks under very weird circumstances for something like this not to be happening,” another commenter claims.
Strange stories from the mountains
YouTuber Donnie Laws says on his channel: “The first reports of any wild man in the US was around 1877, in Western North Carolina. Some gold miners ran into one as they were going to work in the mines.
“They followed it to a cave and found a whole bunch of bones of all different types of animals. They don’t say if there’s any human bones but that’s what they found.”
Nearly two decades later, another newspaper story detailed a second ‘wild man’ supposedly found in the same region. Reports claimed he was eventually placed in an asylum, without ever identifying himself or explaining where he came from.
Brian Jeffrey from the Black Mass Paranormal podcast also alleges: “Recently there has been an increase of reports of these people.
“They are supposedly known to set traps to capture lone hikers in the mountains. They have targeted the elderly and children specifically.”
The disappearances that fueled rumors
Among the most infamous missing persons cases connected to the park is six-year-old Dennis Martin.
The young boy vanished in 1969 during a family camping trip and, despite major search operations, was never located.
Then in 1976, 16-year-old Trenny Gibson disappeared while visiting the national park on a school field trip.
Twelve years after Dennis Martin went missing, 58-year-old Thelma Pauline ‘Polly’ Melton also disappeared.
She had been hiking with friends and briefly walked ahead on the trail before vanishing without a trace.
There have been more recent disappearances connected to the park as well.
Christopher Cessna, 45, disappeared while alone in the area in 2011.
A year later, Derek Lueking headed out on a hiking trail and never returned. During the search, investigators reportedly found a disturbing note left on the dashboard of his vehicle that read: “Don’t look for me.”
Chilling alleged encounters
Jeffrey claims on his podcast that dozens of people have reported seeing ‘hairy, naked men’ throughout the park.
“There was a couple that had parked their car and got out to go to look at a waterfall, climbing up the side, they saw a man completely naked,” the podcaster alleges.
“They described him as ‘hairier than average from the waist down, with his face covered in blood.’”
The park at the center of these claims is Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which stretches across North Carolina and Tennessee and includes parts of the Appalachian Trail.
Is there any truth behind the claims?
Despite the frightening rumors surrounding ‘feral cannibals’ in the park, there is very little evidence supporting the theory.
As Ferber Resort explains: “More importantly, there is no evidence, reports, or even official documentation and digital capture of feral people in the National Parks. It might all be a hoax or just plain theories formulated due to the fear of strange places.”
Whatever may be behind the disappearances, Laws says locals are extremely cautious when visiting the park with children.
“You do not let your children run off into the dark woods by themselves. That is a complete no-no,” he says.
“You don’t have to meet a wild man or a bigfoot. He could just meet a bear or a bobcat or any animal.”
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