Susan J. Bennett, disappeared June 1 2015, Body Found June 8 2015, Lester Prong area of Greenbrier, above campsite 31, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee.
Revised and expanded April 2021
Susan Jenny Bennett, aged 62, was an experienced hiker in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and a member of the Smoky Mountain Hiking Club.
She also wrote two fiction books based in the Smokies. A 2014 book, "The Twelve Streams of LeConte" and "Murder at the Jumpoff" in 2011. Jenny also wrote an ongoing blog called "Endless Streams and Forests" in which she documented many of her hiking outings and illustrated them with her photography.
Jenny Bennett died near Porters Creek, succumbing to hypothermia after a toxic dose of diphenhydramine she had apparently taken in an attempt to commit suicide She’d been missing a week before her disappearance was reported and a search began. Officials found her body about four miles up the trail in the Lester Prong area of Greenbrier in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
The authorities were convinced Jenny had killed herself in the wilderness, but some of her friends weren’t so sure.
Who was Jenny Bennett?
On March 31, 2015, Jenny decided to leave North Carolina and move to St. Johnsbury, Vermont due to her desire to live nearer to her sister in Massachusetts. Those who knew her described her as being excited by the move. She had located a home to buy.
There were few hikers tougher than Jenny Bennett. She took on any challenge in the Smoky Mountains. She had hiked many routes that most hikers don't know, and would not attempt even if they did.
She developed a knee problem in 2012, in which the knee would periodically dislocate and she would force it back into place, then continue with the hike. Ultimately the knee problem became nearly unbearable, and she concluded that an operation to correct the condition would be required. Nonetheless, Jenny kept on with the big hikes as long as she could.
After Jenny's inspiration and mentor in the 1980s, Charlie Klabunde, passed away in February 2015, Jenny organized an outing on March 22, 2015, to pass the Jumpoff on the Smokies' Boulevard Trail, then descend into Lester Prong to a spot to disperse Charlie's ashes. Jenny made it from Newfound Gap to the beginning of the descent from Boulevard Trail, but her knee gave out yet again, and she could not continue. She returned to her car and back to Sylva, while the remainder of the group continued on and completed the memorial as Jenny wanted. That she could not accompany the group to do this for her beloved mentor was tough for Jenny.
For many years Jenny did off-trail hikes in the nearby wilderness and often on her own. Her blog had its last post on May 27, about hiking in the Balsam Mountain area, following trips on May 24th and 27th. She had an undeniable sadness about leaving the mountains she so dearly loved. She was having a hard time saying goodbye to the Smokies, and the many memories they held for her.
Friend and fellow hiker Peter Barr said at the time "She was one of the most experienced off-trail hikers that I knew, and she knew the backcountry of the Smokies as well as anybody. That was absolutely her passion, exploring all of the creeks and slopes of the Smokies and particularly in the Greenbrier area.". Barr got to know Bennett through an online group interested in off-trail hiking. He met her for the first time during a hike in the Greenbrier area. "Jenny was a really strong hiker but could also talk off-trail exploration for hours and hours and hours," he said. "She was really fascinated with every single creek and every ridge in the Smokies and in that particular region of the park had hiked almost all of them."
The disappearance and death of Jenny Bennett
She was supposed to have moved out of the house in Sylva by Monday, June 1, 2015. A prospective renter who came to the house found boxes but no trace of her or her car. Her landlord and brother contacted authorities and she was subsequently reported missing to park rangers on Sunday, June 7th.
Her car was quickly located at the Porters Flat Trailhead on June 7th and then Jenny's body was found about 9:30 am the next day, June 8, in the Lester Prong area of Greenbrier above campsite 31 in the Smokies.
The Porters Creek Trail runs by Fern Branch Falls, which falls more than 40 feet into a boulder field on the left side of the trail.
Her body was found just downstream from the first crossing on the manway above the campsite. She was sitting in Porters Creek, with her head resting against rocks
Autopsy report
The autopsy report from the Sevier County Medical Examiner’s Office released in September 2015 concluded that Jenny had died of environmental hypothermia due to cold exposure from partial submersion in the creek. She also had bruises on her right hip and elbow consistent with a fall. However, she did not have any internal or musculoskeletal trauma. In addition, the coroner reported she had a toxic level of the anti-histamine drug, diphenhydramine, in her blood which was considered a significant contributing factor in her death and pointed towards an intentional overdose.
What happened to Jenny Bennett?
Jenny’s apparent suicide left some of her close friends perplexed. A friend and fellow hiker, Chris Sass, said that she had emailed him on May 26 about him coming to visit her and hike in Vermont. All his communication with her in the days before her death suggested she was looking forward to the future.
Sass said, “For those of us who knew her, we’ve been tortured. It’s something we’ve all spent a lot of time talking about. At least personally, I’ve accepted that I’ll never have any real certainty about what happened and why.”
Other friends recognized no warning signs in Jenny’s behavior over the months leading up to her death. Clayton Carver, who hiked with Bennett many times in the last few years before her death. The two had been emailing in the days prior to her disappearance, with her trying to link him up with another off-trail hiking buddy. He said, “Now looking back and with everything that’s happened, I can say she was in a different place than where she’d normally been, very moody, edgy, irritated. The last couple of hikes we had done together, when we first met and got out of our cars, you could tell something. At the time I didn’t know she was down, but she just wasn’t herself. After we got hiking, she’d come alive.”
Ed Fleming, a longtime member of the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club, said that Jenny ran into some issues while serving as editor of the club newsletter that eventually led to her resignation. Ed said, “Apparently she had some issues going that she didn’t really share too much with a lot of other people. A lot of people think we should have seen the signs and been able to do something to help her. She didn’t really want any help from anybody.”
The death of Jenny Bennett is very disturbing and sad. She seemed to be optimistic about starting a new life in Vermont but at the same time sad to be leaving the Smokies behind. Was she sad enough to take a toxic overdose of an antihistamine? Did her knee give out again, causing her to fall in Porter's Creek and freeze to death?
She often went hiking alone, off-trail but this can be very dangerous in the rugged terrain of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. What happened to Jenny in May 2015 will never be clear but certainly, she was an amazing lover of the outdoors.
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Sources
https://streamsandforests.wordpress.com/
https://www.blueridgeoutdoors.com/go-outside/last-stream-unraveling-mysterious-death-smokies-hiker-jenny-bennett/
https://www.blueridgeoutdoors.com/go-outside/jenny-bennett-found-in-smokies/
http://cadescovelovers.blogspot.com/2015/08/smokies-hiker-jenny-bennetts-cause-of.html
