According to maps provided by the Maine Warden Service, three cadaver dog teams came within about a hundred yards of the site where the remains were found. One team passed near the site on Aug. 8, 2013, while the other two teams passed near the site in 2014.
“We like to run grid searches [by people] behind canines, but because of the terrain, and because we didn’t have enough trained, physically fit people, we couldn’t do that a lot for this area,” Adam said.
The remains were located on a slope about 3,500 feet east of the easterly shore of Redington Pond, about 100 yards inside the boundary of a 12,500-acre Navy range located in Redington Township. The land is used by the U.S. Navy’s Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape School, instructors of which aided in the initial searches for Largay in 2013.
The contractor reported his findings to the Navy, which subsequently alerted the Maine Warden Service. Maine game wardens, state police detectives, NCIS investigators and representative from the medical examiner’s office hiked to the scene of the remains Thursday morning.
‘It’s worse if you go off trail’
The body was found in a mature wooded area, according to the Maine Warden Service, with a lot of mid-level brush and a thick canopy.
AT experts say it’s a challenging area.
“The trail goes over some very steep terrain,” said David Field of Hampden, who has been maintaining that section of the AT for the past 58 years as a volunteer of the Maine Appalachian Trail Club. “But it’s worse if you go off trail.”
“On the east side, it’s almost impossible to walk because you’re talking 100-foot cliffs, boulder fields and caves,” Field said.
It’s there, to the northeast of Poplar Ridge, where the remains were found.