Missing Hiker Found Dead After Suspected Fall at Utah's Zion National Park
A body believed to belong to a 19-year-old female hiker from Maine — who went missing while exploring Utah’s Zion National Park — was found by Search and Rescue workers on Thursday.
According to a statement released by the National Park Service (NPS), the body was found below Angels Landing — a 1,488-foot tall rock formation known previously as the Temple of Aeolus.
While the hiker has not been identified, the body that workers found was “consistent with the age and gender of the hiker reported missing,” NPS said.
“Further information will be released once a positive identification is made and the family is notified,” NPS explained, adding that a joint investigation by Zion National Park and Washington County Sherriff’s Office was underway.
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According to CNN affiliate KUTV, the female hiker went missing on Wednesday at approximately 5:30 p.m and the fall was reported around 7:40 p.m. that evening. The Search and Rescue team was sent out Thursday morning at daybreak, as it was too dark to find her at night.
Eleanor Siebers, a spokesperson for NPS, told CNN on Thursday that investigators suspect the women fell to her death.
Her name is likely to be released on Friday, Siebers said.
Zion National Park is still open, but rockfall on Saturday caused access to Angels Landing — and the trail that takes travelers up to the top — to shut down. It was reopened on Tuesday after several unstable rocks, “one the size of a refrigerator,” were removed from a narrow section of the trail they were blocking.
CNN reports that there have been nine fatalities on Angels Landing since 2004. The most recent was in March 2019.
