A man who disappeared almost 30 years ago in Graham County remains a mystery to this day.
Gilbert Andrew Vasquez, 31 from Houston, Texas, was camping with relatives near Beech Gap on the North Carolina-Tennessee state line when he disappeared on Halloween Day of 1991.
The last local person known to have seen Vasquez was Wayne Millsaps, who was hunting in the area that day. Millsaps said Vasquez approached him and begged him to take him to Knoxville, Tenn. because the people he was camped with were trying to kill him. Millsaps told Vasquez he couldn’t take him to Knoxville, but would take him to Robbinsville when he returned from hunting.
When Millsaps returned to his truck, Vasquez was there again begging to be taken to Knoxville. Millsaps repeated his offer to
take him to Robbinsville and Vasquez walked away, the last known time anyone else ever saw him.
Millsaps reported his encounter with Vasquez to the relatives at the campsite, who identified themselves as Gilda Vasquez – Gilbert’s sister – a man she identified as John Denton, and Denton’s brother. They told Millsaps that Vasquez had some problems and not to worry about it.
Around 2 p.m. that day, Gilda reported that her brother was missing to U.S. Forest Service employees Terry Eller and Dale Holder, who were working in the area. A search of the area was began shortly thereafter, with the Graham County Rescue Squad setting up their mobile command post in the nearby Unicoi Crest overlook on the Cherohala Skyway.
The search area – which was around 5,000 feet in elevation – was in rugged terrain, with dense underbrush and numerous rock outcroppings. There was an urgency involved with the search, due to a forecast of winter weather soon to hit the area. Vasquez had been reported as being lightly dressed and wearing tennis shoes when he disappeared.
At times, there were as many as 80 searchers in the woods.
The search continued for several days without a clue being turned up, no tracks, or any items relating to Vasquez were found. Then – as had been predicted – the search area was hit by winter weather, with rain, snow, high winds and temperatures that dropped into the 20’s at night. The trees were covered in ice. The search was discontinued around 6 p.m. the following Sunday.
Nothing more was heard about Vasquez until February of 1995, when Otis Burden – a U.S. Forest Service officer – found human remains in a pine plantation consisting of a portion of a human skull, a leg bone, an arm bone, bone fragments and the sole of a tennis shoe. The location of the remains was on the Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee off Buck Highway, about halfway between the towns of Tellico Plains and Vonore.
Experts said the remains could have been there as long as four years. The portion of skull had a round hole in it and forensics detected bits of metal in the skull, indicating that the person could have been shot.
At the time of writing this column, I am not aware of any more information concerning the mysterious disappearance of Vasquez.
Marshall McClung is the historical columnist for The Graham Star. He can be reached via email, mcclungs@email.com.