🌲 “A wild animal must’ve come through here…” – The cop’s voice cracked when his flashlight hit the mud: Liam Payne’s phone still glowing, beam aimed at claw-scarred trees… but NO footprints leading OUT. Ten years ago, straight-A teens Liam & Chloe vanished from the Appalachian Trail after a quick after-school hike. Their packs shredded, shoes neatly side-by-side, and a single blood-chilling scream caught on Chloe’s voicemail at 6:42 PM that still haunts rangers. Now, newly leaked search-cam footage and DNA on freshly found bones prove something was hunting them… and it’s STILL out there.

You won’t sleep after seeing the night-vision clips and the ranger’s banned 2015 report… Tap before rangers delete it again! What really stalks these woods? 👇

Ten years after straight-A high school sweethearts Liam Payne, 16, and Chloe Matthews, 17, vanished without a trace on a sunny October afternoon, newly leaked body-cam footage from the original search is ripping open one of America’s most baffling Missing 411 cases – and pointing to something far darker than a simple lost-hiker story.

On October 18, 2015, the Knoxville teens parked Chloe’s red Jeep at the remote Thunderhead Trailhead in the Great Smoky Mountains, texted parents “back by 7,” and disappeared. By midnight, rangers found the Jeep unlocked, keys in the cupholder, Liam’s iPhone flashlight still blazing in a puddle of mud 2.1 miles up the trail – its beam locked on a cluster of trees shredded with fresh claw marks 12 feet off the ground. But here’s what stopped searchers cold: their footprints walked IN… and simply ended. No struggle. No drag marks. No footprints leading out.

The leaked 2015 helmet-cam video, obtained exclusively by underground Missing 411 researchers and now going viral on X, captures Ranger Mike Hensley’s trembling voice at 02:14 a.m.: “A wild animal must’ve come through here… Jesus, look at those trees.” The footage pans to five parallel gashes in bark – too high for bear, too deep for cougar – and Chloe’s pink Nike sneaker placed perfectly upright beside Liam’s, laces tied, socks folded inside like they’d been removed by hand.

What the public never saw: Chloe’s voicemail to her mother at exactly 6:42 p.m. – 47 minutes after their last Snapchat from the trail. The 11-second recording, buried in FBI files until a 2025 FOIA dump, contains only wind… then a single blood-curdling scream followed by three knocks on wood and dead silence. Cell tower pings place the phone 4.7 miles from where it was later found – terrain experts say impossible to cover in 47 minutes.

The case exploded again last month when a deer hunter near Spence Field stumbled on human bones wrapped in Liam’s 2015 Letterman jacket. Tennessee Bureau of Investigation quietly confirmed DNA matches to both teens via dental records – but here’s the bombshell: the bones were bleached white, articulated, and arranged in a perfect 6-foot circle, with Chloe’s class ring placed dead center like some ritual marker. TBI claims “bear scavenging,” but renowned forensic anthropologist Dr. Laura Pettigrew told Fox News off-record: “These bones were boiled clean. No animal does that.”

Park Service internal memos, leaked via whistleblower account @SmokyTruth2025, reveal rangers were ordered to scrub all references to “unusual tracks” and “knocking sounds” from official reports. One 2015 email from Supervisory Ranger Paul Whitaker reads: “DO NOT mention the three-knock pattern. Media will run with Bigfoot nonsense. Stick to exposure/dehydration narrative.”

But locals know better. The Southern Appalachian range has swallowed over 90 people since 2010 under identical circumstances: healthy hikers vanishing in broad daylight, shoes found neatly, no blood, high-elevation claw marks, and the infamous “three knocks” reported by survivors who escaped. Former ranger David Paulides, author of the Missing 411 series, claims the Payne-Matthews case fits his profile to a terrifying degree: victims found miles from last known location, clothing folded, zero scent for cadaver dogs.

Eyewitness accounts never made the news. Hiker Sarah McKinney, camping 400 yards away, filed a statement (later redacted) claiming she heard “wet snapping sounds” at dusk, then saw a 7–8 foot silhouette with “glowing amber eyes” dragging something large through rhododendron. Search dogs refused to enter that grid for three days straight.

The creepiest discovery? Liam’s phone, when finally unlocked in 2023, contained a 4-second video timestamped 6:39 p.m. – three minutes before Chloe’s scream call. It shows only forest floor… then a massive shadow crosses the lens, accompanied by three deliberate knocks on a hollow log. The final frame freezes on what appears to be a human handprint – five fingers plus an elongated thumb – pressed into wet mud.

Families never bought the official story. Chloe’s mother, Karen Matthews, has camped at the trailhead every October 18 since 2015, playing her daughter’s favorite song on a portable speaker at 6:42 p.m. sharp. Last month, her motion-activated trail cam captured something that made national news: at exactly 6:42 p.m., October 18, 2025, three knocks echo through the valley… then Chloe’s voice, faint but unmistakable, whispering “Mom?” before the camera inexplicably shuts off.

TBI reopened the case last week after the bone discovery, but rangers are furious. One anonymous officer told Fox News: “We’ve been told to stand down on any predator theory. Orders come from D.C. – something about not alarming tourists.” Meanwhile, the Thunderhead Trailhead has been quietly closed “for maintenance” through 2026 – the first indefinite closure in Smokies history.

The leaked footage ends with Ranger Hensley zooming in on the claw marks. His whispered final words, caught before the tape cuts: “These aren’t bear. These are… fingers.”

Ten years later, the Appalachian woods still hold their secret. Liam’s phone battery finally died in evidence lockup last month – but not before auto-uploading one last photo to the cloud: a blurry nighttime shot from inside the evidence bag, showing what looks like a massive silhouette pressed against the proof room window… three fresh scratches gouged into the glass from the outside.

Locals now call it the Thunderhead Knocker. Hikers report hearing three deliberate knocks on trees, followed by total silence – then waking up miles away with no memory. The park service insists it’s “natural phenomena.” But every October, Karen Matthews returns to the trailhead with fresh batteries and a GoPro.

She says the knocks are getting closer.

And this year, for the first time, they’re answering back.