The news reached Caroline Voss by telephone at her home in Bingmpington, New York on the morning of August 16th, 2 days into the search.
She had already called the Roosevelt Lodge four times by then, receiving each time the same careful reassurance from the lodge manager that everything possible was being done.
When Chief Ranger Parish called her directly, she did not scream. She did not cry on the telephone.
She asked him in a precise and level voice three specific questions. Whether her son was the kind of person who would have gone off trail, whether the hydrothermal areas had been checked, and whether there was any possibility of foul play.
Parish answered each question as honestly as he was able. She thanked him and hung up.
Then she drove to her neighbor Margaret Hollis’s house three blocks away and sat at her kitchen table and did not move for 4 hours.
