A 60-year-old hiker from North Carolina was found alive days after she disappeared along the Appalachian Trail in Connecticut, officials said Friday.
Marta Renee Bowen was located several miles south of where she was last seen at her campsite on the Appalachian Trail in Kent, Connecticut, Paul Copleman, spokesman for the state’s Department of Environmental Protection told the News-Times, a Danbury-based paper.
"The missing adult female has been safely located and is being treated by emergency services," Connecticut State Police Troop L in Lichfield wrote on Facebook. "We thank everyone for the help!"
Bowen was lost on the trail since Wednesday morning, until she came across other hikers on Friday and called 911 from one of their cellphones, Copleman said.
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Bowen, a resident of Durham, North Carolina, is a staff psychiatrist at Central Regional Hospital in Butner, the Raleigh News and Observer reported, citing state records.
Bowen had been with two friends when they stopped at a campsite for hikers along the trail on Tuesday, officials said. Her friends noticed she was missing the following morning and that she had left her cellphone and hiking gear behind.
Bowen’s friends and officials believed Bowen may have gone to a remote area of the trail and gotten lost.
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Crews launched a search for Bowen on the ground and in the air using ATVs, helicopters and drones. Volunteer firefighters from Kent, Sherman and Warren joined the search Friday.
Bowen was hiking a portion of the Appalachian Trail, the longest footpath in the world that spans nearly 2,200 miles, according to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. The trail crosses through 14 states, from the mountains of Georgia to Maine.
Kent, where the search for Bowen took place, is located near the border of New York state and is about 90 miles north of New York City.