Wylie's Angel

I like geocaching for lots of reasons. I like to be outside. I like discovering new places. I like walking and connecting with nature. But occasionally I learn something as well. Usually it’s just local historical trivia, or maybe a geography lesson. But sometimes the lesson is more personal, and as in this case, tragic.

The morning started out with a trip to the Trinity Trails in Wylie, Texas for some hiking and caching. We chose to start at the easternmost trailhead, which was also the closest to us.

There was a little marina at the trailhead.

To our surprise, there was also an artificial beach. The morning started off pleasant, then quickly warmed up.

Poor guy now has a horrible case of poison ivy. We must have passed through a particularly bad patch.

The geocaching was not as great as it looked on paper. Caches were too spread out and basically inaccessible due to the tall grass.

This one in the fence post was my favorite of the day.

After hitting a couple of caches we decided to call it quits. The hiking wasn’t really all that interesting at that end of the trail. Before leaving town, though, I decided to drop by the Wylie’s Angel cache that had caught my attention a few days prior.

In April 2010, around the time of my birthday, the body of a small, malnourished child was found wrapped in a blanket “in a pile of refuse” near a large pond in an out of the way location in the nearby town of Wylie, Texas. The boy was six year old Gerren Isgrigg.

Gerren was severely disabled, unable to move or communicate. He received nourishment through a feeding tube and required round the clock attention due to a seizure disorder.

Gerren was living in the care of his maternal grandmother. Unable to cope with the demands of his care, she confessed to removing his feeding tube and abandoning the boy near the pond. He was thought to have died of exposure a few days later.

At first unidentified, the boy came to be called “Wylie’s Angel” by shocked residents.

A geocache was created near the pond to commemorate little Gerren and his tragic murder. The cache is in the woods a little south of where his body was found. We decided to investigate the spot by the pond where he was dumped.

A little shrine still remains there, seemingly forgotten.

After I told my son the story of that place he asked me “how could you look yourself in the mirror knowing you had done something like that?”

We said some prayers and left.

Rest in peace, little boy.