Rescue Workers Find Body Of Missing Otterbein Student

LA PLATA COUNTY, Colo.—Rescue workers have located the body of a hiker who had been missing since Tuesday in the Weminuche Wilderness northeast of Durango.

Joshua Gulvas, 21, of Columbus, Ohio, fell to his death about seven miles north of Lemon Reservoir, according to The Durango Herald. 

Search teams including La Plata County Search and Rescue, Colorado Mounted Rangers, Civil Air Patrol, and La Plata County Sheriff’s Office scoured the 32-square-mile heavily forested search area for three days. Search & Rescue K-9 teams, searchers on foot and on horse back, technical climbers, fixed wing planes and a helicopter were employed in the effort. During the three days, more than 35 personnel plus numerous locals, family members and friends took part in the search, according to the La Plata County sheriff’s office.

Friday afternoon, Randy Smith, a local resident, used his satellite telephone to report finding Joshua’s backpack about 2 miles east of his last seen point. Smith, who is very familiar with the area, repeatedly helped search commanders over the three days by covering the high country on horseback in arduous and at times dangerous conditions. 

Gulvas’ body was located sometime between 2 and 3 p.m. at the bottom of a 300-foot cliff near the headwaters of Virginia Creek drainage, said Dan Bender, spokesman with the La Plata County sheriff’s office.

Rescue workers had been searching for the Otterbein student since Wednesday.

Gulvas became separated from his father about 10 miles northeast of Henderson Lake in the Weminuche Wilderness. The father and son took separate logging roads and failed to rendezvous, according to The Durango Herald.

A recovery team reached the site and was able to evacuate Gulvas’ body just before nightfall, according to the sheriff’s office.

Gulvas, 21, was a junior at Otterbein; he was majoring in nursing.

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