By Beth Lawrence
A person found deceased on national forest land in Jackson County has been preliminarily identified, and the investigation into the death now takes place in at least two jurisdictions.
The remains of Alison Thomas, 37, of Union County, were found last week at Horseshoe Rock in Nantahala National Forest just east of Wolf Creek Lake. She had been missing from Union County since mid-February.
Union County is situated east of Charlotte. Horseshoe Rock is approximately 195 miles from the location Thomas was last seen alive.
Reports of a body came into Jackson County Sheriff’s Office on March 5, and JCSO began an investigation. Sheriff Doug Farmer requested assistance from the State Bureau of Investigation with the inquiry citing their access to more investigative tools.
Thomas’ remains were found a little over two weeks after she was reported missing from Marshville in Union County.
She was reported missing on Feb. 17, said Chief Deputy Tony Underwood of the Union County Sheriff’s Office.
“The information we were provided was that she was last known to be alive on Monday, Feb. 13 at a residence in the Flint Ridge Road area of Union County,” Underwood said. “She had an acquaintance there at this property out on Flint Ridge Road in northeastern Union County.
“We immediately started an investigation and started checking area hospitals, area jails to make sure that she wasn’t somewhere else to be accounted for. Later the next day, detectives and crime scene personnel got involved in the search for her, and we spent countless hours, days searching for her following up on leads with no success.”
Following the discovery at Horseshoe Rock, UCSO was alerted to an unidentified body by the SBI, which was also assisting them with the missing persons investigation. Detectives from Union County drove to Jackson County to see if they could preliminarily identify the remains as those of Thomas.
“Based upon some of the tattoos and some of the marks on her body we were confident in confirming that she was in fact Miss Thomas our missing person,” Underwood said.
An autopsy was performed Tuesday at Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem and should conclusively identify Thomas and possibly provide more information as to the cause and manner of death.
Thomas’ death is being investigated as a homicide.
Underwood did not confirm that there is a person of interest in the case but did say UCSO investigators were following some “very positive leads” and that “it’s too premature to say where one of those things may take us.
It is not believed at this point that Thomas had any connection to Jackson County or Western North Carolina.
Underwood issued a plea to anyone who might be able to provide details into Thomas’ disappearance.
“If there’s anyone with information or you know someone who thinks they have an idea what happened we would just ask them to call either the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office or the Union County Sheriff’s Office with that information because we’re looking for leads,” he said. “We just want to be able to give some closure to the family,”
Sheriff Farmer was unavailable for an update on JCSO’s investigation.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office at 586-8901 or Union County Sheriff’s Office at 704-283-3789.
