A hiker lost for two weeks in rugged South Carolina wilderness may have hid from a search party because she believed she was being chased by men intending to harm her, authorities said.
"From the very beginning, before the search was initiated, she became frightened or paranoid that somebody was trying to run her down," said Walt Purcell, Oconee County (S.C.) emergency preparedness director."We feel that had she wanted to come out and be rescued, the opportunity was probably there numerous times," he said.
Although the hiker, 22-year-old Eloise Lindsay, insisted Tuesday that men chased her along the trail, authorities said they have no such evidence and have no plans to investigate further.
Officials who interviewed the backpacker said the most likely scenario is that she became frightened and panicked when she saw hunters and later thought her rescuers were the same men chasing her.
"We don't believe anybody was chasing her," said Tim Morgan, assistant sheriff of Pickens County, S.C.
On Monday, two days after authorities called off the search that involved more than 100 people for seven days, Lindsay was found by a deer hunter a few miles north of the 43-mile Foothills Trail in Table Rock State Park.
Six months out of college, Lindsay told reporters she had gone backpacking to think about what to do next with her life. She said she left the main trail and got lost when she sensed she was being followed by men.
"I could tell there was no good intent involved," she said, although there was no clear indication the men meant to harm her.
"I used instinct, like a deer," she said, adding that the men carried walkie-talkies and that she could hear them talking about her.
Lindsay, who began the hike alone on Nov. 4, first began to fear she was being tracked by area construction workers Nov. 7, long before she exhausted her seven-day food supply.
Oconee Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy James Singleton said he believes Lindsay heard workers talking over walkie-talkies amplified through speakers on their trucks and thought they were discussing her.
Lindsay said she later knew rescuers were searching for her but said she still believed other men also were trailing her.
The hiker - who suffered infected blisters on both feet, cuts and abrasions - recalled her ordeal at a news conference under a tree wrapped in yellow ribbons outside her parents' home in Atlanta.