Steve Mensing, Editor
♦ On Monday April 21st James Martin Hudspeth, 50, headed out for his usual jog about 9 a.m. on the Carolina Thread Trail in Union County, N.C. The section of the Carolina Thread Trail, where Hudspeth jogged, is a paved trail along Creft Circle, an oval road crossing Faith Church Road in Lake Park. When Hudspeth failed to return home some two hours later, his family notified the Union County Sheriff’s Office.
Later in the early evening a Union County Sheriff’s deputy discovered a shed door open behind Faith United Methodist Church. Several dozen yards from the section of the Carolina Thread Trail where Hudspeth jogged, the Sheriff’s deputy noticed a man’s body sprawled on the ground. Later that body was identified as the missing jogger James Martin Hudspeth.
According to reports, Sheriff’s Department investigators ruled out accidental death. It’s said that Hudspeth’s body displayed stab wounds, however law enforcement has yet to determine whether the wounds were self-inflicted or inflicted by someone else. The final decision on whether the case was a murder or a suicide now rests with the Medical Examiner.
Residents in the Lake Park section of Union County, where James Martin Hudspeth lived, are anxious to learn the Medical Examiner’s verdict. Is there a Carolina Thread Trail killer out there? Or was this a highly unusual suicide where someone may have taken their life by stabbing themselves after exercise? Depressed folks don’t often dispatch themselves by stabbing. And I don’t recall hearing of many suicides fresh on the heels of exercise where feel-good endorphins are likely to elevate moods. Of course I haven’t viewed the medical evidence available to the Medical Examiner.
Murders and attacks are not a rarity on nature trails. Just do a search including: murder (or attacks) + trails + (Choose any of the following: joggers, walkers, bicyclists, hikers, runners etc.) and you will note exercisers get attacked, robbed, and sometimes murdered on trails. Recently bicyclists were attacked on the Carolina Thread Trail in the Charlotte area. Its difficult to protect folks in nature areas where human predators hunt for easy prey. In the event of serious bodily harm or death on a trail, the victim or their survivors may have a cause of action for premises liability, if they can prove that the owner of the land, and/or the holder of the easement over the trail, was negligent in providing for safety of those using the trail.
Here are several articles on the overwhelming case against Thread Trails:
