Missing 64-Year-Old Hiker Found Tied to Tree

Park rangers in North Carolina are looking for a man described as unwashed and scruffy after a missing hiker was found tied to a tree, WRAL reports. An hour after a friend reported the woman missing on Thursday, rescuers found her barely alive on a trail along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Buncombe County. "She's not deceased at this time but she is tied to a tree," a caller said to emergency dispatchers. "This is the one we've been looking for." Rangers say they think she was assaulted on the Mountains to Sea Trail, just four miles from Craggy Gardens Visitor Center.

The 64-year-old woman's name and condition haven't been released, WLOS reports, but Rangers with the National Park Service say they're looking for a white man who's about 50, unshaven, with salt-and-pepper hair. He was said to be wearing baggy blue pants and a light gray T-shirt. "The subject may appear and smell of a musty odor of being unwashed in several days," says the parks service. (These lost hikers survived by spelling h-e-l-p with branches.)