Man Reports Being Shot While Hiking Off Trail in Smokies

Update from NPS Digest this morning:

Sanford Lethco, 29, of Sevier County, who reported that he’d been shot while hiking in the park on September 7th, has confessed to park investigators that the gunshot wounds he suffered were sustained in an incident occurring outside of park boundaries in Sevier County. The county has accordingly taken the lead in the investigation. Lethco sustained and was treated for two gunshot wounds to the lower leg which he originally claimed to have received while hiking in the park, off trail, in the Cosby area. He was flown to the University of Tennessee Medical Center, where he was treated and later released.


----------------------------------------------------------------


NPS Digest is reporting that on last Friday afternoon, Cocke County dispatch received a call from a man who said he’d sustained gunshot wounds while hiking deep within the park in the Laurel Springs Road area near Cosby. Emergency medical services arrived on scene to find that the man had two gunshot wounds in his lower leg. He was flown to University of Tennessee Medical Center for treatment and later released.

The man claimed to have not seen his assailant, but did hear two gunshots just before he realized he had been struck. Rangers worked with the Cocke County Sherriff’s Office to secure the area along Laurel Springs Road, the closest road to where the shooting incident reportedly occurred. NPS rangers and special agents are investigating the shooting.


Jeff
Hiking Trails in Great Smoky Mountains National Park