Big Water, Kane County: Searchers believe they have located the body of the last hiker who went missing from Buckskin Gulch, which is close to the border between Arizona and Utah.
The body of a man was discovered in Arizona on Wednesday afternoon, approximately five miles beyond the Utah-Arizona border, along the Paria River, which flows just south of Buckskin Gulch. Lt. Kane County Sheriff According to Alan Alldredge, until an autopsy is carried out, investigators will not be able to accurately identify the man. However, the search teams believe it is the man they have been looking for based on his physical characteristics.
The man will be taken by Kane County search teams to the Coconino County Medical Examiner’s Office for positive identification because the body was found in Arizona.
An extensive search that began on Monday has come to an end with the recovery. After a weekend hiking excursion through Buckskin Gulch in Kane County, three men from the Tampa Bay, Florida, area failed to check in and were reported missing by their families on Monday morning.
According to Alldredge, the men, all of whom were in their 50s, had begun exploring the slot canyon on Friday and planned to finish at Lees Ferry in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area on Sunday.
The men camped in the gulch on Friday, according to the sole survivor, and awoke on Saturday to rapidly rising water.
According to Alldredge, “they were hit by an actual flash flood” at some point during the day.
The water swept the three men downstream. Eventually, two of them were able to emerge from the water and reunite. In any case, they couldn’t track down the third individual in their party. Later, the body of that man was found, and it was recovered.
According to Alldredge, the remaining two men broke up at some point. He stated that one man was injured and unable to proceed. According to his partner, he would try to get help and return.
The sole survivor was found Tuesday by a Utah Department of Public Safety helicopter, which brought him out of the canyon. According to Alldredge, he provided the approximate location of where he left his injured friend to search teams. But he wasn’t there when the crews went there.
The lieutenant said that the body of that man, whose body was found on Wednesday, was somewhere between 6 and 10 miles from where he was last seen. Even though the water was moving through the canyon at a higher rate than usual, Alldredge stated that there had been no reports of a second flash flood, which may have contributed to the man’s location.
Other hikers were also stranded while crews were looking for the three Florida men who went missing. Since Monday, the Department of Public Safety helicopter has removed 11 individuals from three groups
