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The body of an Ohio woman was found in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park late Tuesday afternoon, a week after her disappearance.
Angela Gosnell, Knoxville News Sentinel
Mitzie Sue "Susan" Clements with her daughter(Photo: National Parks Service)
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The body of a woman from Ohio was found in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park late Tuesday afternoon, a week after his disappearance during a hike with his daughter, according to park officials.
The research teams found Mitzie Sue's body "Susan" Clements about 2 miles west of the Clingmans Dome car park and three-quarters of a mile south of the Appalachian Trail, according to a park press release.
Clements, 53, of Cleves, Ohio, had disappeared since the afternoon of September 25, when she and her daughter were separated during a hike.
According to park spokeswoman Julena Campbell, the girl reported Clements disappearing shortly after her march forward and her mother's loss of vision around 5 pm, according to the park spokeswoman.
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Park officials searched the immediate area that night without success. The next day, a group of experienced researchers spent the night on the Appalachian Trail in an attempt to find Clements and interview hikers in the area.
Research continued to grow and expand, as crews braved rain, fog, wind and temperatures in the 1940s to travel through the densely wooded, mountainous parkland that overlaps Tennessee and North Carolina.
Officials closed Clingmans Dome Road and set up a command post there. Verizon has set up a mobile phone tower to help remedy the bad cell phone service. The crews used helicopters, canine teams and specialized search and rescue drones, as the number of agencies contributing to the effort continued to climb. Tuesday, more than 100 people from 45 agencies had joined the research.
Drones with ORNL participate in the search for missing woman from Ohio Mitzie Sue Clements in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on Tuesday, October 2, 2018. (Photo: Brianna Paciorka / News Sentinel)
The teams used satellite GPS units to find out which areas had already been explored. Scientists from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory assembled aerial photographs from their drones, assigned geographic coordinates to each pixel and used the composite images to better understand the dangerous terrain.
Campbell, the park's spokesperson, said the officials also worked with doctors who helped to better understand the type of behavior that Clements could adopt in various circumstances.
"There are many things that go into managing a research, many technologies and psychological science for what people do in these situations," Campbell said Tuesday.
Andrew Harter, of ORNL, describes the drone technology used to help search for a missing woman from Ohio in the Smokies
Brianna Paciorka, USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee
According to a district statement, Clements had been working since December as an accounting technician with the Cincinnati Sewerage District Metropolitan District Administration Department.
Previously, she worked for UC Health and Trinity Health System, both in the Cincinnati area, according to social media publications. Cleves, the small town Clements is from, is about 16 km northwest of Cincinnati.
A colleague, David Stephens, head of IT services for the sewer sector, posted on social media, calling Clements "one of the friendliest people I've ever met." Always a happy hello and a little conversation as I walked past my desk to get his daily ice water. "
Mitzie Sue "Susan" Clements, 53, has disappeared from the Great Smokies since September 25th. (Photo: courtesy photo)
Clements' family did not speak to the media during the search, except to say that she was a "wonderful mother of three children". She was hiking with her youngest daughter on this trip.
Elizabeth Clements, another of Clements' daughters, created a GoFundMe on Tuesday to help with family expenses during research. Tuesday evening the campaign had raised nearly $ 3,500.
Search for teams at the morning meeting at the Clingmans Dome on Saturday, September 29, 2018, in search of Mitzie "Susie" Clements, 53, of Ohio, missing in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park since Tuesday. (Photo: National Parks Service)
"Our hearts are with Mrs. Clements' family and friends," said the park in the statement. "The park wishes to express our appreciation to the many agencies and organizations that participated in the research effort."
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