Remains of 73-year-old hiker missing for a year found off-trail in CO national park
The body of a hiker missing inside a Colorado national park for over a year has been found, officials said.
National Park Service Rangers found the remains of Thomas Irwin, a 73-year-old from Indianapolis, Indiana, the agency said in a March 3 news release.
Irwin was last seen Jan. 15, 2024, while hiking the Petroglyph Point Trail in Mesa Verde National Park, officials said.
The next day, his family contacted the park and rescuers started searching extensively, officials said. Someone also turned in a cellphone believed to be his to the park’s museum, McClatchy News previously reported.
The Petroglyph Point Trailhead is near the Chapin Mesa Archaeological Museum. The 2.4-mile strenuous loop takes about two hours to hike and follows the “foot-worn trail of the Ancestral Pueblo people into the forested Spruce Canyon landscape” and “is narrow, rugged, and rocky, with several steep drop-offs along the canyon wall” leading to a large petroglyph panel about 1.4 miles south of the trailhead, McClatchy News reported.
Rescuers didn’t find him after 10 days of active searching. Park officials continued the search over the past year and ultimately found his body on Feb. 28 in the original search area during an off-trail grid search using a human remains detection dog, officials said.
“We sincerely appreciate and recognize the dedication of the Mesa Verde Resource and Visitor Protection Team and other park staff who continued the search for Mr. Irwin,” park superintendent Kayci Cook said in the release. “We are glad this provides some closure for his family.”
Mesa Verde National Park is near Cortez, just north of the Ute Mountain Reservation and about 30 miles west of Durango.
This story was originally published March 4, 2025 at 1:57 PM with the headline "Remains of 73-year-old hiker missing for a year found off-trail in CO national park."
