By Tim Gardner
A search is underway for a 67-year-old deaf woman who has been missing from Charlotte for approximately two weeks and is thought to be in the Linville Gorge area of Avery or Burke County.
Frances Collett Apperson, who resides on North Course Drive in Charlotte, was last seen leaving her home on Tuesday, May 17, according to a press release from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD). She was reported missing four days later on Saturday, May 21.
Apperson is 5-foot, 2-inches tall, and is a white female who weighs about 180 pounds with brown, shoulder-length hair and brown eyes.
She was believed to be going to Linville Gorge and CMPD personnel and Avery County Sheriff’s Department deputies found her car in the parking lot near Linville Falls, not far from Linville Gorge. It’s unclear if Apperson is familiar with either area.
According to reports, relatives searching for Apperson said they found a small angel along the trail leading to the falls and deputies found an identical angel in Apperson’s car.
Rescuers from Avery and Burke counties as well as from the North Carolina Forest Service have all responded to the search.
Anyone with information on Apperson’s whereabouts is asked to call Burke County Communications at (828) 437-1911, the Avery County Sheriff’s Department at (828) 733-2071 or the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department at (704) 336-7600.
And if anyone in the Linville Gorge area finds any material sign or signs of Apperson, they are asked not to touch it or them, and to contact emergency management officials immediately. Anyone seeing Apperson or any or her material items can also call 911, which will ring to the Emergency Dispatch Center in the county in which they placed the phone call.
The Linville Gorge Wilderness (“The Grand Canyon of North Carolina”) is the third largest wilderness area in North Carolina (after Shining Rock Wilderness and Joyce-Kilmer Slickrock Wilderness) and one of only two wilderness gorges in the Southern United States (along with Bald River Gorge Wilderness in Tennessee). Maintained by the United States Forest Service, Linville Gorge comprises 11,786 acres around the Linville River, and is situated inside the Pisgah National Forest. It is mostly located in Burke, NC County. The river is approximately 1,400 feet below the ridge, thus hiking in and out of the Gorge is challenging and enjoyable for those who like serious hiking.
Popular tourist attractions in or near the wilderness include Linville Falls, a waterfall fed by the river and free to the public;
Wiseman’s View, a rock outcrop near the center of the gorge that gives an excellent view of the interior of the gorge; Linville Caverns, a privately maintained cave attraction accessible by automobile from U.S. Highway, Route 221.
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