Overdue Hunters
October 14, 2023
Kolob Reservoir
At 5:46 A.M. on Saturday, October 14, 2023, the Iron County Sheriff’s Search & Rescue (ICSSAR) volunteers were paged to respond for an overdue party of 2 adults and 3 young kids that have not come back from their elk hunt.
While the ICSSAR volunteers were preparing the vehicles and drone equipment the Iron County Sheriff’s Deputy Liasson was able to secure the use of two helicopters with Utah Highway Patrol (UHP STAR 8) and Southern Utah University (SUU) aviation. The Iron County Sherriff’s office obtained the last known cell phone ping for one of the missing adults to assist the team in a starting location for the search. The location of the coordinates was right on the line of Iron County and Washington County. Due to that fact the Washington County Search and Rescue team was also paged. Shortly before 9am one of the missing hunters was able to contact the Iron County Dispatcher to report that he and his family were safe and in a cabin. When they woke up Saturday morning, they turned on the Generator for the cabin and their WIFI Booster and realized the County was attempting to locate them. The Iron County Deputy and Washington County Deputy were able to contact the family to confirm their safety and good health. We had 11 Iron County Search and Rescue volunteers, one of which is our drone pilot, 3 K9 SAR Dogs, 2 Iron County Sheriff’s Deputies, 1 Washington County Sheriff’s Deputy and the UHP helicopter and SUU helicopter.
The mission concluded at approximately 9:00 A.M. All volunteers were back to the building by 10:30 A.M.
We are thankful for the incredible interagency collaboration and communication.
#IronCountySheriffsSearchAndRescue #ICSSAR #WeWillAlwaysComeToYou #Kolob #HuntingSeason #SupportSAR #SoThatOthersMayLive #UHP #SUU #HelicoptersInSAR #DronesInSAR #SARK9
