Thelma Pauline "Polly" Melton — Disappearance Profile

Thelma Pauline Melton, known to friends and family as Polly, was a retired schoolteacher from Jacksonville, Florida. She and her third husband, Robert Melton (aged approximately 78 at the time), spent late spring through late autumn each year parked in an Airstream trailer at a private campground leased to a small group of approximately ten families at the base of the Great Smoky Mountains in Swain County, North Carolina. Polly was a caretaker for her husband, who was in poor health.

Polly was familiar with the area and with Deep Creek Trail, a well-travelled 4-mile roundtrip gravel path running parallel to Deep Creek. According to accounts from friends and family, she had hiked the trail many times over approximately 20 years. She was physically described as approximately 5 feet 11 inches tall and 180 pounds, with auburn hair and brown eyes. She wore eyeglasses and smoked approximately two packs of cigarettes per day.

She had known medical conditions: high blood pressure and nausea, for which she was taking medication. Her husband's prescription bottle of Valium (diazepam) was later discovered to be missing; it was not known whether Polly had taken the pills.

On the morning of September 25, 1981, Polly prepared a spaghetti sauce for dinner and set out on the Deep Creek Trail with two friends, Trula Gudger and Pauline Cannon. Her husband Robert remained in the Airstream. Both friends later reported that Polly was in good spirits throughout the hike. They recalled that she and her companions had been joking and chatting. The three women hiked to approximately the halfway point of the trail and began the return leg.

At a point on the return path — with Deep Creek on one side (shallow due to drought conditions) and a steep ridge on the other — Polly suddenly accelerated her pace and moved ahead of her two friends. One friend called out: "I wouldn't want to be in a foot race with you, Polly!" Polly reportedly turned, laughed, and continued walking quickly. She went over a hill on the trail and out of her companions' direct line of sight. When Gudger and Cannon came over the hill, Polly was not visible. They assumed she had continued ahead to the campground.

The two friends arrived at the campground at approximately 4:30 p.m. Polly was not there. Robert had not seen her since the group departed. A cursory search of the immediate area found no sign of her. A park ranger was notified at approximately 6:00 p.m.

Polly had no cash, no identification, and no medication with her when she disappeared. She was not permitted to drive in September 1981, so she did not carry car keys. Her husband held the keys to the Airstream. She was carrying her cigarettes.

In the days before her disappearance, two irregularities were noted by investigators. First, Polly had not signed up to volunteer at the Bryson City Presbyterian Church Nutrition Center on September 25, which was unusual for her. Second, her supervisor at the Nutrition Center told investigators that Polly had asked to use the centre's telephone multiple times on Thursday, September 24 — something she had never done before — and that neither family members nor known friends could account for having received calls from her on that day. The identity of the person or persons she called on September 24 was never established.

A pastor who knew Polly told investigators that she had been experiencing depression related to her mother's recent death. He stated that, some years earlier, Polly had made a statement he interpreted as an admission of an affair. There is no corroborating evidence for this account.

In April 1982, approximately six months after the disappearance, a bank certificate interest check made out to Thelma Pauline Melton was cashed in Birmingham, Alabama. The bank teller was unable to provide a useful description of the person who presented it, and investigators lacked the resources to obtain a handwriting analysis. It was never established who cashed this check or whether it had any connection to the disappearance.

Polly was declared legally dead in 1988. Her family held a memorial service in 1991, after her father — who had insisted she was still alive — had passed away.

A formal search began on the evening of September 25, 1981. Over the following days, the search expanded to include approximately 150 volunteers, National Park Service rangers, and trained search dogs. The search covered Deep Creek Trail and the surrounding terrain.

NPS park ranger Chuck Harris told a reporter at the time: "We are just puzzled at this point. The trail she was on is well traveled and she apparently knew it well."

Bloodhounds arrived at the point where Polly's companions had last seen her. The dogs circled the location and could not track a scent trail beyond that point. Investigators noted that the behaviour of the dogs, and the failure of the ground search to find any trace, led authorities to conclude that Polly had most likely exited the park in a vehicle rather than becoming lost within it.

On October 2, 1981 — approximately one week after the disappearance — park officials announced their working conclusion: there was no evidence that Polly had become lost or been forcibly removed from the trail, and the most probable explanation was that she had left the park voluntarily.

After about a week, the active search was suspended. No physical evidence — no clothing, no personal effects, no remains — was ever found within the park.

Later, after autumn leaf-fall improved aerial visibility, a helicopter survey of the area found no visible sign of remains beneath the canopy.

The case was investigated by the National Park Service and, later, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (case number 81-3356 held by the NPS, agency contact: nps_isb@nps.gov). North Carolina Governor James Hunt offered a $5,000 reward for information at the family's request. The reward produced no confirmed leads.

The following explanations are those that have been considered by investigators and analysts. They are listed in order from most to least consistent with the available evidence.

1. Voluntary departure from the park. The official working conclusion of NPS investigators. The bloodhounds' failure to track a scent beyond the last-seen point, the failure of the ground search to find any trace, and the subsequent helicopter survey finding nothing visible are all consistent with Polly having left the trail area of her own accord rather than wandering off into the forest. The trail offered a nearby car park and crossroads. Given the reported phone calls the previous day to an unidentified person, one hypothesis investigators considered was that Polly had arranged to meet someone and left with them. She was wearing valuable jewellery and had no means of independent transport, but a pre-arranged vehicle could have collected her from a point accessible from the trail.

2. Medical episode. Polly had high blood pressure and had a history of Valium use. Her husband's Valium prescription was missing after she disappeared. If she had taken Valium — possibly combined with the exertion of hiking — a sudden medical event such as dizziness, a fall, or altered consciousness is possible. However, the complete absence of any trace on a well-travelled trail makes an incapacitating medical event without discovery less likely, unless she moved off the trail surface before the event occurred.

3. Accident or exposure. The temperature was in the mid-80s Fahrenheit on the day of the disappearance and did not drop sharply overnight. Rangers noted that the conditions were not harsh enough to cause heat stroke or cold exposure. Park animals at that location were not considered large enough to drag a person of Polly's size from the trail without observable disturbance. Polly had a known fear of snakes; she is unlikely to have deliberately ventured off the path into undergrowth. The terrain immediately bordering Deep Creek Trail in that section did not offer large, concealed areas where a person could quickly become disoriented, and Deep Creek itself was shallow at the time due to drought. A pure accident on the trail surface would normally have been visible to the friends following not far behind.

4. Foul play. Polly was wearing diamond jewellery, which the family identified as a potential robbery motive. However, the trail was populated with other visitors, and a struggle or confrontation on the trail would ordinarily have been audible or visible to others. No witness reported anything unusual. There is no physical evidence to support this explanation.

5. Voluntary disappearance (walking away from her life). Investigators considered the possibility that Polly had decided to leave her circumstances — which included full-time care for an elderly and unwell husband and possible personal problems — and arranged to do so. The mysterious phone calls the day before, the failure to show up to volunteer (unusual for her), and the cashed Alabama check six months later are consistent with this theory, though none of it is conclusive. Those who knew her have generally regarded this as out of character.

No physical trace of Polly Melton has ever been found inside the park or outside it. The bloodhound behaviour at the point of last sight — the dogs circling without picking up an onward trail — has not been fully explained, though this can occur for various reasons including trail contamination, an abrupt change of surface (entering a vehicle), or environmental factors.

The identity of the person she telephoned on September 24, 1981 has never been established. The circumstances under which the Birmingham check was cashed, and by whom, were never determined.

The case meets the formal threshold for "unresolved" — no cause has been established, no remains recovered, and no witness has come forward with definitive information.

• NPS Investigative Services Branch cold cases
• The Charley Project
• The Doe Network
• NamUs listing referenced in Charley Project

Status as of June 2026: Missing (NPS). Declared legally dead 1988. No remains recovered. Active cold case.