No phone, abandoned car, pleas for public help: California woman missing at Zion National Park in Utah

ST. GEORGE, Utah – Officials at Zion National Park in Utah continue to search for a California mother who went missing last week, providing new information to the public on Tuesday.

Deputy Chief Ranger Andrew Fitzgerald and Chief of Interpretation Amanda Rolland held a press conference on the case of 38-year-old Holly Suzanne Courtier on the one-week mark of her disappearance, stressing that mild weather could increase the woman's odds of survival

"Right now we are committed to finding Holly. We are going to keep searching as long as there are clues or leads," Fitzgerald said. "We don't have a predicted time when we would stop searching."

Courtier rode a private shuttle to the Grotto area of Zion National Park and was hiking the Kayenta Trail, heading toward Emerald Pools around 1:30 pm on Oct. 6, according to a person riding the shuttle.She was supposed to return on the shuttle at 4:40 p.m.

She was reported missing by her family two days later. Searches began Friday. Courtier left her phone in California, so search efforts have not been focused on her electronic use and she did not leave any type of itinerary.

Zion officials found Courtier's vehicle in a neighboring townat the beginning of the search.

Courtier is 5-foot-3 and 100 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes. She is thought to possibly be wearing a "Pistil Gray Trucker Hat, a Patagonia Black Nano Puff Jacket, a Dark Tank Top, Danner Trail Gray Hiking Boots, and an Osprey Blue Multi-day Pack."

She was also thought to possibly be carrying a cream-colored hoody sweatshirt, a Rumple Nanoloft puffy blanket and a camouflage-colored double hammock.

Kailey Chambers, Courtier's daughter, told CBS Los Angeles that her mom had been traveling the country in a converted van after losing her job due to the coronavirus pandemic. Chambers said her mom was an "experienced hiker, has hiked alone before and is familiar with Zion National Park."

"I know she would not give up on me, so I refuse to give up on her," Chambers told the TV station. "I don’t care if I’m the only person on the trail looking for her, I’m not going to stop until I find her."

Zion has partnered with K-9 Units from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and Washington County and Search and Rescue crews, as well as the Washington County Sheriff's Office.

"We have been searching throughout Zion National Park, due to no specific itinerary. In our Search and Rescue operations, we have used helicopters, currently, due to the terrain, we have been mainly focusing on using ground search crews. There are four to five SAR teams a day out in the park," Rowland said in an email Monday.

Follow K. Sophie Will on Twitter at @ksophiewill.

This article originally appeared on St. George Spectrum & Daily News: Holly Suzanne Courtier: California woman missing in Zion National Park