Gene's Shoe¶
Gene's Shoe is the red, white-soled child's shoe of the missing boy Gene Cartwright, found hanging high in a tree with a tuft of pale hair caught in its laces.
| Type | Item (evidence) |
| Aliases | the shoe; pale hair |
| Owner | Gene Cartwright |
| Found at | The Field and Bent Tree |
| Holder | Donald McManley (from Appalachia 04) |
| First appearance | Appalachia 02 |
Description¶
A child's shoe, red with a white sole. Sheriff Carter Burke confirms over the phone that the missing boy's shoes were red with white soles. Caught in the laces is a tuft of pale hair that feels like soft body hair, with the ends still on it. (Appalachia 02)
Properties¶
The pale hair is the clue that makes the shoe relevant to the question of what sort of creature is involved. The players read the shoe and hair together as pointing to something that can climb, and that may have returned to hang its prey in the tree. (Appalachia 02)
History¶
The field¶
In Appalachia 02, the team searches the field near the tree where Gene, aged seven or eight, disappeared while playing with the neighborhood children. The volunteer search has trampled the scene. Dick Baxter asks "What sort of creature is it?" and, on an 11, notices something dangling from a high branch. Huell climbs the tree, tears and muddies his suit on the way down, and retrieves the shoe. Kurt says, "I don't mean to be blunt, but shoe in a tree, that kid is dead." (Appalachia 02)
The team bags the shoe and hair and stashes them in the trunk of the Ford Explorer. Kurt phones Sheriff Burke, who confirms the shoe's color, admits his deputies should have looked up, apologizes for the volunteers trampling the scene, and asks to see the shoe once forensics is done. (Appalachia 02)
Edward Nick, a neighbor's boy who was playing with Gene, says Bigfoot took him; Rita points out that this does not explain how the shoe got into the tree. Later the team finds a white rabbit's pelt, ripped apart with its insides gone, high in another tree, and Kurt wonders whether the shoe was hung in the first tree afterward, by a creature returning to hang its prey. See White Rabbit Pelt. (Appalachia 02)
Handed to McManley¶
In Appalachia 04, the bag of recovered pieces the team gives McManley includes Gene's shoe and the shoe of the other missing boy. That second shoe, found in the tunnels, is a separate item: see Child's Tennis Shoe. Elsewhere in the episode, Dante argues that a shoe in a tree is as good as a body for presuming Gene dead. (Appalachia 04)
Trivia¶
- Gene's family lives in trailer 920 and the Nick family in 513. (Appalachia 02)