Miraculously the woman who jumped into the Great Smoky Mountains National Parks Little River which was rain swollen presumably to take her life and refused to be rescued by a park ranger, was spotted by a Park Volunteer at 10:45 am crossing the Little River at the Townsend Wye and was in the parking area at the Wye while scores of park rangers, fire department and rescue personnel spent a second day searching for her.
Though 45 year old Carla S. Manzolini of Knoxville Tennessee jumped off a rock when a concerned park ranger approached her due to her odd behavior into the raging river only a few hundred yards from the Metcalf Bottoms parking area where she left her vehicle, she ended up 7 miles downstream.
It is believed that she exited the flooded little River on the north shore at an elevation of 1,675 feet and hiked up to the Roundtop Trail which ranges in the area between 2,300 feet and 2,625 feet. From Little Roundtop she could have hiked east about 1-1/2 miles to Wears Cove Road or West as she did for about 6 miles.
With so many park rangers and local rescue personnel it is easy to see the staggering cost of the rescue operation undertaken to save Carla Manzolini who was transported to Blount Memorial Hospital for evaluation.
