Friend finds missing man's body

“When I found him, he could see the heavens up above. He was lying beside two stumps, as if he had laid down to rest. I think he had just played himself out, trying to walk for help. He looked like he passed in a very peaceful way,” said the 79 year old Bob Wright, of finding his friend in the woods.

When Wright found the body of Lewis Gardner in the woods, it brought to an end over a year of concern, fear, finally resignation in tragedy for his family. Gardner, along with his companion Mona Cole, were reported missing in September of 2004. They had left an event and were heading back to close up Gardner’s summer place. Apparently, Gardner became disoriented, took a wrong turn on a disused logging road and ended up with the car stuck; he then headed out on foot to get help. After an intensive search, their car with Cole’s body inside, was found in the woods, off Route 1 in Whiting, near the Barneyfield Road. Gardner’s body, despite the efforts of hundreds of searches, including the Maine Warden Service, state and local police and many volunteers, was not found until Tuesday morning, November 1st, when Bob Wright, a well-known outdoorsman and former classmate of Gardner’s, headed into the woods to search for his friend’s remains.

Wright is a woodsman, having logged in the area, been on the last of the log drives down the Machias River and worked in woodlot management for many years. He had sold property and supervised plans for logging and for subdivisions in the area where Gardner disappeared, as well as hunting in those woods for over fifty years. After going out on an unsuccessful deer hunt on Monday, Wright decided to try to find the remains of the man he went to school with at Washington Academy.

Using large aerial photographs and maps of the area, Wright thought that he knew where Gardner might have headed after abandoning his car. “It was just like an exercise in school. I wanted to do what he had done, but in reverse.” He plotted a route that would have taken Gardner away from the main search area, reasoning that after making a wrong turn on the woods road, he might be turned around, disoriented. “The roads up there change every year, getting grown over. Also, new roads were cut “ for a proposed new development. “I figured that he left the car and headed for Josh Lake, thinking he could get out and get help. But, he was in for a terrible shock -- 'cause where he headed, Josh Lake wasn’t there.”

Wright headed into the woods, working along old trails that he “didn’t need a compass for. That whole area is walled up in my mind.” As he worked through the woods, following the path he thought Gardner would have followed, but in reverse, he came upon the body. “I was hiking for about one and a half hours and I saw him, in a blue sweater and pants, just lying there peaceful. He still had his glasses and his wallet in his pocket. Nothing had disturbed him from that day to this.”

Wright made his way out of the woods again, marking the trail “with five different colors of ribbon. I hadn’t brought anything to mark the trail with me,” and went to the home of Christine Small, Gardner sister, to break the news. Wright then contacted the Maine Warden Service, and led them in to the body. I took in (game warden) Wade Carter and another man, and I got tired, trying to keep up with them young guys, so the dog and I took a shortcut, came out in front of them..” The body was recovered and brought out of the woods finally, more than a year after Gardner had gone down the woods road.