Gloria McDonald did not consider herself an ‘outdoorsy’ person, but when her husband wanted to go hiking in the Ouachita National Forest, she saw it as an opportunity to spend time with family.
On January 26, 2001, Gloria, her husband Daniel, along with her stepson and his girlfriend who were visiting from Florida, drove up to Queen Wilhemina Park. They wanted to visit a hiking spot and a scenic overlook known as ‘Lover’s Leap’.
They parked near the lodge, which was nearly empty since it was off-season, and started down the trail. This trail wasn’t a difficult one, and it was just going to be a mile or so walk, but once they started down the path some fallen trees made the hike slightly more challenging than usual. Gloria decided to head back to the lodge and let her family go on without her.
When her family returned, they couldn’t find Gloria in the lodge. They also noticed that their car was still right where they left it, still locked up, with Gloria’s belongings inside.
Gloria was nowhere to be found.
Where is Gloria McDonald?
Gloria and her husband Daniel had recently moved to Mena, Arkansas. Gloria had grown up in New York and then later, Texas. When she and Daniel married, they moved to the small town of Mena, Arkansas. Gloria found a job as a news reporter for the local newspaper and was a well-liked friend to many in the area.
Interestingly, Mena, Arkansas, was the setting for a well-known crime in the 1980s involving drug smuggler, Barry Seal. Mena, Arkansas seems like a random place for a large drug operation, but I suppose that’s the point.
Barry Seal’s life and illegal drug activities were the inspiration for a 2017 movie starring Tom Cruise. Barry Seal was a TWA pilot who flew missions for the CIA. He eventually became a drug smuggler for the Medellín Cartel in the 1980s. To avoid the authorities, Seal and his family relocated to the remote town of Mena, Arkansas, and his wife comes to accept, and enjoy, the wealth generated by his new life. The small town gradually becomes wealthy as the hub of U.S. cocaine trafficking. Seal had so much money, that he buried suitcases full of cash in his backyard, all in the small town of Mena, Arkansas. The same small town where Gloria McDonald would become a news reporter in the year 2000.
Mena, Arkansas is located in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas, just a few miles from the Oklahoma border. The mountains are part of the Ouachita National Forest, which consists of 1.8 million acres.
The area is known for camping, hiking, mountain biking, and all kinds of outdoor activities. In January, however, it is considered off-season, and visitors to the park are scarce.
On January 26th, 2001, Daniel and Gloria had out-of-town visitors. Daniel’s son from a previous marriage, Sean, and his girlfriend, Erin, were visiting from Florida. The four would head out for some breakfast in Mena, and then they were going to go for a hike at the Queen Wilhelmina Park. The park is about 12 miles to the north of Mena.
The group had specific plans to hike the Lover’s Leap Trail. They parked at Queen Wilhelmina Lodge, which is where the Lover’s Leap trail begins. The trail is just over a mile long and takes hikers to a beautiful and scenic overlook. The lodge was nearly empty that day. It was a Friday morning, but there was just one overnight guest in the lodge and just a few maintenance workers and lodge employees on site. It was off-season for the park, so that was a typical January day at the lodge.
The family parked in the almost empty parking lot and started towards the trail. At 68 years old, Gloria was in good health and enjoyed being active. She exercised and kept in shape regularly, however, she was not an outdoorsy person.
When they were just a hundred yards or so down the trail, the group encountered some fallen branches and debris that would need to be crossed over. Earlier that month there had been some snow and ice storms and this was likely a result of those storms. Gloria decided at that time that this hike wasn’t for her. She told the family she would head back to the lodge and visit the gift shop, maybe the restaurant, and she would meet them when they were done with their hike.
She waved goodbye to her husband, stepson, and his girlfriend, and headed back towards the parking lot where they had just parked.
Daniel, Sean, and Erin continued their hike to Lover’s Leap. After, they returned to the lodge in search of Gloria but didn’t see her in either the restaurant or the gift shop. They checked out their car, but it was still locked and in the same spot, they left it. It also still had Gloria’s purse in it, which I find super suspicious. If she had intended to go to the restaurant or do some shopping in the lodge, I would think she would have gone to the car first to grab her purse.
They look in and around the lodge some more- but still nothing. They started asking employees if anyone had seen her. Most had not, but one maintenance man said he did believe he might have seen a red-headed woman in a yellow jacket, which does describe Gloria and what she was wearing.
Eventually, police are called and a missing person report is filed.
The next day, January 27, the Arkansas State Police Special Agents were called in to assist. Search and Rescue dogs were brought in, and helicopters conducted searches from the air. Nothing was discovered. There was no sign of Gloria McDonald anywhere.
The dogs did pick up a possible scent, which followed a paved path from behind the lodge to a road. It was there the dogs lost the scent.
The police were baffled. With no signs of foul play, they started looking into Gloria’s life. Some speculated that maybe her role as a news reporter had something to do with her disappearance.
Did she cover a controversial case? Was she involved in investigating the infamous Barry Seal for an article? Maybe someone was out to get her because of her role in reporting something.
Police did look into that angle but found nothing.
Police also learned that Daniel and Gloria had only recently moved to Mena from Cedar Key, Florida just 6 months prior. A search began in Cedar Key as people wondered if maybe Gloria had just had enough of Mena and had to get away. Yet still no signs of Gloria.
Investigators began questioning Daniel right away. Daniel cooperated but was angry that they were spending so much time interrogating him instead of out there looking for his wife. He knew he would be the prime suspect and from the beginning, he demanded to take a polygraph.
Finally, the police administered a polygraph test and according to law enforcement, he passed.
Still, his behavior was odd during the days following his wife’s disappearance. He didn’t seem overly worried or concerned about her, but more agitated and annoyed with everything going on.
He is even quoted as saying something to the effect of, he couldn’t imagine anyone abducting his wife for her body because she certainly couldn’t be considered pretty.
Daniel’s son defended his father, saying that he was just that kind of person. He sometimes says things the wrong way and can be misunderstood, but he is still a very loving and caring person.
The police had to look at every angle here because they had zero evidence to go on. Was she lost in the mountains or the forest? Did she plan to get away? Was she ever even in the mountains and the park to begin with?
Just a week later, Daniel announced that he was moving back to Florida. One week after his wife disappeared, this man decided to move away. This baffles me because what if she did just become lost on the mountain? He was just going to leave her there?
Daniel claimed that he just knew she was dead, and he wasn’t going to stay in Mena where the whole town would think of him as the man who killed his wife. Even though he continued to proclaim his innocence, and he stuck to his story, he knew what everyone was thinking and he wasn’t going to stick around and endure it.
The police would continue to investigate, and multiple theories were discussed and considered.
Theory #1: Gloria planned to leave. The little glimpse we saw of her husband Daniel wasn’t great. Maybe Gloria had had enough and just planned to leave Daniel and start fresh somewhere else. That could explain why she started on the hike and then said she was going to go back. Did she arrange for a friend or family member to pick her up so she could escape? Gloria’s daughter, who has tried to stay out of the media as much as possible, did once tell a reporter early on that she felt her mom was dead. But, could she have said that because she didn’t want to encourage anyone to search for her? We don’t know, but what I can say, is if this is what happened to Gloria McDonald she did a fantastic job of covering her tracks and staying in hiding.
Theory #2: Gloria became lost on the mountain. Many people who know of her case believe this is likely what happened. The Ouachita Forest is so vast, and many areas are dangerous. There are steep drop-offs and dense woods, and many have said it would be easy to become lost if you went off-trail. Others, however, have disputed that saying that they would have found her by now. But, there have been cases where bodies have been found in the wilderness years later because they found themselves in an obscure location. Could Gloria have fallen down an embankment somewhere, found herself in a spot where no one could see her, and succumbed to the elements? Or even the fall itself? Sure, I suppose it’s a possibility. They did have search dogs out there, so I question how they didn’t pick up a scent, but using search dogs isn’t an absolute. Sometimes they just don’t pick up a scent.
Theory #3: Foul Play. The actions of others in the case have caused some concern in the community. Daniel himself, by his actions, his own words, and then his decision to move just one week after Gloria vanished, has a lot of people pointing the finger at him. And many question whether Gloria was even in the park at all that day. Was that possibly a cover-up story? I do have questions when it comes to this theory. For one, that would mean that Daniel’s son Sean and his girlfriend Erin were in on it and are guilty of a cover-up. And if that’s the case, why? Why would Daniel get them involved when they could be in trouble themselves over this? And why would they even want to be involved? And if Gloria was never in the park, where was the possible crime scene? I think this theory is a likely one, but there are so many questions left unanswered.
Theory #4: Missing 411. The now-famous series by David Paulides investigates mysterious disappearances in National Forests and Parks throughout the United States. If you aren’t familiar with David Paulides and the Missing 411 books and docuseries, they focus on the bizarre and unexplained cases of people vanishing in national parks. Paulides encourages people to step outside of their comfort zone with their beliefs and consider some rather unconventional theories of what is happening to these people. Many of his theories and studies center around the possibility of BigFoot, or other unknown creatures or entities out there. As you can imagine, it’s fairly controversial, with many people disputing these theories, but he also has a great number of followers and believers. The Missing 411 theories are sometimes brought up in connection with this case. After all, a woman vanishes into thin air in a National Forest. Zero clues. Zero evidence. Fits the parameters of cases discussed in his books and documentaries.
Here are some interesting quotes from those closest to Gloria that were said to reporters in the early days of her disappearance.
Gloria’s daughter was quoted saying: “The first thing I think is that more than likely, she’s dead,” she said. “I know my mom. If someone did get her into a car, she would’ve mouthed off so much they would’ve had to kill her.”
Daniel, the husband, who also believes Gloria is dead, had this to say when announcing he was leaving Mena, Arkansas, and moving to Florida, “I don’t want to be the guy in Mena whose wife was killed on the mountain.”
Daniel also said, “In my mind, she’s dead, I think she saw something she shouldn’t have seen … so they took her. Or maybe she was snatched up by someone and tossed in one of these buildings.”
Lastly, a quote from a close friend of Gloria’s, “If she’s dead, we need to find her. If she’s alive and wants to be found, we need to find her,” he said. “If she’s alive and doesn’t want to be found, then we need to let her be.”
Another interesting fact, in this case, is that Gloria was Daniel’s second wife. His first wife died in their home due to natural causes. People have come out and questioned that however since Gloria disappeared, but I do want to clarify there is no investigation involving his first wife and that seems to be pure speculation that there is even anything to question there.
Gloria was last seen on January 26, 2001, near Mena, Arkansas, or Queen Wilhelmina Lodge and Park. Gloria is described as 5’6” and 120 pounds at the time of her disappearance.
She was wearing a blue plaid flannel shirt, a glossy bright yellow hooded jacket, blue jeans, sneakers, rose-tinted sunglasses, a plain gold wedding band, a platinum ring resembling two balls intersecting one another, a three-and-a-half carat sapphire ring, a necklace with a cross pendant and possibly a small-sized gold filigree ring.
Gloria might have been carrying a Minolta Riva Zoom 90 camera with the serial number 40907425 at the time of her disappearance.
If you have any knowledge of Gloria McDonald’s whereabouts or any information on her case at all, please contact the Polk County Sheriff’s Office at 501–394–2511 or the Arkansas State Police at 800–553–3820.
