Up in Smoke - A Mystery

This account comes from the Strange Outdoors website, originally published October 27, 2017 and updated May, 2020. Edited for length.

On Friday, September 25, 1981, 58-year-old, Thelma Pauline Melton, often called “Polly”, was hiking with two of her friends, Red and Trula, on the Deep Creek trail near the North Carolina side of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. They started the hike around 3 pm.

It was an easy, well maintained trail on gravel that Polly had been hiking for 20 years. The Deep Creek Trail, began close to the group’s campgrounds and continues into the National Park. About a quarter of a mile inside the park, the trail splits. The right side leads to a picnic area and campground and the left side of the trail continues into the forest.

That day the picnic area and campsite inside the park was busy, with around fifty cars in the parking lot. There were many people hiking, fishing, camping and riding horseback. Polly, Red and Trula walked more than a mile past the picnic area and the fork in the trail. They stopped at a turn-around and Polly smoked a cigarette. The conversation was positive and lighthearted.

As they headed back to the trailhead at around 4 pm, one hour into their walk, Polly suddenly picked up her pace and began putting distance with the two other women. Red and Trula were not sure what had gotten into Polly. Red called out, “I wouldn’t want to be in a foot race with you, Polly.” Polly looked back and laughed, but kept up the pace until she was out of sight. Red and Trula expected to round a bend or top a hill and find Polly waiting. 

But the friends weren’t able to catch up and did not find Polly waiting on them. Although it was strange, they weren’t worried as Polly knew the trail well. They arrived back at the campsite at around 4.30 pm and went straight to Polly’s trailer. She had not returned. Confused, they began asking everyone else at the campsite. No one had seen Polly.

Red and Trula never saw Polly again. She vanished without a trace.

Polly and her husband, Bob (78 years of age), spent the fall living in an Airstream trailer at the base of the Great Smoky Mountains, in the Deep Creek Campground. She’d been calling that area her second home for more than 20 years. Polly, Bob and their friends stayed there several months of each year, before returning to their Jacksonville home. The campsite was private with about 10 other couples. The others on the site were close-knit and no newcomers could join the campsite without unanimous approval from the rest of the group.

Polly was on her third marriage to Bob with no children. Bob had two adult sons from a previous marriage. They had married 6 years before in 1975, and since Bob’s health was declining. 

As she grew older, Polly struggled with her weight and her health. At the time of her disappearance she was 5'11" and weighed about 180 pounds. Here are other relevant facts: she had high blood pressure and suffered from nausea, she took medication for both conditions, she smoked two packs of Virginia Slims every day, and she did not drive in the summer of 1981, as she’d lost her license due to the medical issues.

Polly had suffered from several episodes of depression. For example, when her mother died in 1978, she told her pastor she wanted to go to heaven to be with her mom. During this conversation, she made comments that led him to believe she may have had an extra marital affair. In 1979, she was again depressed and revealed to her pastor she was a heavy user of Valium. However, things seemed to improve, and by 1981, the pastor said she was in a much better place mentally. Polly’s father visited her and Bob in early September of 1981. He and Polly had grown very close in the prior years and he stated she seemed normal during his visit.

On the day she disappeared, she was wearing a white and pink sleeveless striped blouse, tan polyester pants, size 8 ½ shoes with crepe soles and glasses. She also had a diamond studded white gold wristwatch and a wedding band.

Bob was not physically able to search for his wife, but began calling everyone he could think of to see if they’d given Polly a ride. Trula, Red, and two other friends headed back to the park and checked the picnic area and parking lot. They hiked the trail again and began asking other hikers if they’d seen a woman matching Polly’s description.

At 6 pm, Trula, Red and Bob reported Polly missing to a park ranger and a search was launched involving around 25 people. They began searching the trail and picnic area, including the creek that ran parallel to the trail.

Polly was terrified of snakes and her friends said she would not go off trail. Furthermore, there was thick vegetation on both sides and it would be easy to spot any disturbance. There were several forks along the path, but they were all marked. Many of the park rangers knew Polly and described her as intelligent and strong. They stated she was very familiar with the area and they didn’t believe she could have gotten lost.

Over 100 people searched for Polly over the next week. Nine search dogs were brought out and the trail was closed. One of those dogs alerted on a downed tree near the creek. The handler believes Polly must have rested on the tree, but none of the other dogs detected her scent. Rangers posted pictures and spoke with many campers, hikers and fishermen with no leads.

Since Polly suffered from high blood pressure and nausea it seemed unlikely she could have got a long way in a short time. Her medical problems had caused her to lose her driving licence and she did not have any car keys with her.  

Authorities were unable to even get a good set of tracks to follow, which would have made things easier considering Polly’s left shoe had apparently had a noticeable crack in the sole which would have made her tracks easy to differentiate from those of other hikers.

Bob was so distressed that he was admitted to the hospital the night Polly went missing. The following year his sons helped him sell the Airstream and he moved into a nursing home. Bob’s sons refused to speak to the media. One son did comment that his only interest was the impact on his father. According to the Meltons’ pastor, Bob later realized his bottle of Valium was missing from the Airstream. Polly’s nausea and blood pressure medications were untouched.

One theory is that Polly ran off with a secret lover. She volunteered at a Presbyterian Nutritional Center during the times she lived in North Carolina. For the previous four years, she had been serving food to the elderly at the Center. At the end of a shift, the volunteers would write down the next day that they would be in. Polly always worked on Fridays, but on Thursday, September 24 she did not write down that she’d be returning the following day, as was her habit.

The center’s supervisor later revealed something else that was outside of the norm that day. Polly had never before asked to use the facility’s phone. But on her last day she asked to use the phone several times. The supervisor did not hear the conversations and no long distance charges were on the phone bill. Authorities were unable to trace the phone calls.

Perhaps Polly arranged for someone to pick her up whilst on her hike, to make it look like she was lost in the woods, thinking that this way would be easier on her husband, rather than him knowing she left him for somebody else. This is postulated as a reason why she picked up her pace and moved ahead of her companions on the trail.

Months after Polly disappeared, in April 1982, a check was cashed in her name in Birmingham, Alabama. The check was for interest due on a bank certificate. Investigators followed up on the lead, but it led nowhere . The teller had no recollection of who cashed the check.

No trace of Polly Melton has ever been found and she remains missing.