The strange case of the woman who was found hanging on a cliff a month ago and disappeared again

A woman who disappeared and was found clinging to a tree hanging from a steep cliff has disappeared again, opening up a new mystery about her whereabouts.

Gayle Stewart was hanging on a slope about 121 meters above a road when a friend of the family found her last month. But now, in a strange development of events, the 64-year-old woman from the state of Nevada (USA) is once again nowhere to be found.

Investigators say Stewart was last seen on March 14 in the Bypass Bridge parking area near the Hoover Dam, hundreds of miles from her home in Reno.

“Stewart had traveled to the area to take pictures and did not return to his vehicle,” U.S. Park Rangers said in a March 17 press release.

A spokesman for the Lake Mead National Recreation Area confirmed that Stewart is the same woman who was reported missing weeks earlier, on Valentine's Day.

Stewart's friends and family organized a search party for her during the investigation of her initial disappearance.

They found her trapped on a steep slope, where most people don't usually walk.

“Actually, it's kind of a miraculous story,” Seth Williams, battalion chief of the Reno Fire Department, said at the time.

“The son called some friends to start looking for her and one of the children decided to jump off this cliff thinking that maybe she fell there and found her hanging from a tree,” he added.

“He said the last thing she said was' help 'and then she didn't talk anymore,” the officer said.

The photos showed an elaborate rescue by the lifeguards, who used ropes and a basket to reach it.

His rescuers said he wasn't responding initially and was hypothermic to the point where he wasn't shaking.

It is unknown how it ended up on the spot.

Firefighters said she may have fallen down the slope because she was missing a shoe when they found her and both legs had “a little trauma.”

The battalion chief said Stewart became more sensitive when she was taken to an ambulance.

“By the time we got her to the vehicle, she was much more receptive and seemed to be more present, but she wasn't communicating yet,” she said.

“With the rain and snow that fell that night, I had already been exposed for most of the 12 hours. It could have been a very different result if the child hadn't found it when he did,” he added.

Stewart finally recovered completely.

No updates have been released on his most recent disappearance following the public notice shared by park rangers.

Stewart has blonde hair and blue eyes and is 5 feet 8 inches tall. She weighs about 52 kilos and was last seen wearing a black long-sleeved shirt, black leggings and black shoes.

The authorities are asking citizens for information in order to try to re-establish their whereabouts.

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