The Bryant Couple’s Pisgah Hike Murders

John and Irene Bryant On October 21, 2007, a retired couple of avid hikers living

in Horse Shoe, North Carolina, John Davis “Jack” Bryant, 80 years old,

and Irene Woods Bryant, 84 years old, left for a hike through Pisgah National

Forest, leaving their parked maroon Ford Escape at the Yellow Gap Road near U.S.

Route 276. After not hearing from them for two weeks, family members reported

the couple as missing to the Henderson County Sheriff's Office, who promptly launched

a search for the Bryants, consisting of more than thirty volunteers, cadaver dogs,

and a helicopter. Through examining their phone records, it was learned that John had attempted