LITTLE COTTONWOOD CANYON, Utah -- A missing hiker was found dead in Little Cottonwood Canyon Saturday morning.
Unified Police say the 35-year-old man was reported overdue by a friend Friday evening, and the man's body was found Saturday morning.
Police later identified the man as Andrew Sharp, a resident of the Salt Lake Valley.
Unified Police spokesman Justin Hoyal said Sharp had sent a text to a friend at noon on Friday and asked that he get picked up at 2:30 p.m. at the White Pine trail head in Little Cottonwood Canyon. The hiker did not show up when his friend came to pick him up.
“The friend came up to pick him up at 2:30 and he wasn’t here," Hoyal said. "At about a little after 6, we received a call from the friend saying he hadn’t found him."
Crews searched for Sharp Friday until the search was called off for the night, Hoyal said.
At about 8 a.m. Saturday, the Department of Public Safety helicopter spotted the hiker's body. Officials said crews had their hands full Saturday, as they were also responding to a separate incident in the same area. A hunter fell in the area and suffered a head injury.
Jim Winder, Salt Lake County Sheriff, said the missing hiker was found as both searches were underway.
“While we were in the midst of the two searches, air assets observed a victim in one of the high Alpine areas and subsequently determined that was our victim that we were looking for,” he said.
Hoyal said it appears Sharp was at the bottom of a cliff area when he fell. It is unknown how far the man fell, but Winder said Sharp "appears to be the victim of a long fall."
