After an extensive 11-day search, on May 6 the Great Smoky Mountains National Park halted its active field search for missing Tampa man Gordon Kaye, 68.

Update: 4:47 p.m. Wednesday, May 3

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park has reduced the scale of the search for Tampa resident Gordon Kaye, who was reported missing April 26 and last seen April 23 near a backcountry campsite in the Deep Creek area of the park near Bryson City.

Flitting about her apartment on Vancouver Island, Melissa McDevitt had already packed her bag in preparation for the long journey from Canada’s west coast back to Haywood County. 

Every so often — about 20 times a year — Western North Carolina’s social media networks flare up with impassioned pleas from friends and family members of a missing person, begging for any information that could help bring their loved one home. But the reasons for the disappearances, and the results of the investigations, are often as unique as the missing persons themselves.