BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. — A body found in a "hard-to-reach" spot above Boulder Canyon Drive on Saturday matches the description of missing University of Colorado Boulder student Megan Trussell, the Boulder County Sheriff's Office said.
City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks rangers contacted the sheriff's office at 10:41 a.m. about discovering a deceased female, the sheriff's office said. When detectives arrived at the scene, they found a body that matched the description of the missing student. The Boulder County Coroner’s Office will confirm the identity and the cause and manner of death.
At 3:14 p.m. Saturday, a public information officer with the Boulder County Sheriff's Office told Denver7 that deputies had responded to the 40000 block of Boulder Canyon Drive — also known as Highway 119 — after receiving word of a death in the area.
The body was found in a "hard-to-reach" spot that required rappelling to reach, the sheriff's office said. No other information was available at the time, but Denver7's Adria Iraheta, who spoke with volunteers of a search party for Trussell earlier in the day on Saturday, reported that authorities were working to recover the body in the same general area that the volunteers had been previously searching.
Judy Brocato, a family friend of the Trussells, was helping with the volunteer search on Saturday and told Denver7 earlier in the day that Trussell's phone had pinged in the canyon around 10:45 p.m. Sunday. It last pinged in the canyon at 11:55 p.m. that night. Investigators believed her phone was still there throughout the week, Brocato told Denver7.
Hear from Judy Brocato and other volunteers who came out Saturday morning to search for Megan Trussell in our 5 p.m. report below.
Brocato said Trussell wasn't much of a hiker, and had left her residence hall in "big white platform sneakers." It was also very cold that evening, she said.
"It is very perplexing how she just seems to have disappeared," she said. "It doesn’t make sense. So, we’re just trying to piece that together."
The whole stretch of Boulder Canyon Drive was closed between Boulder and Nederland during the investigation, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation. It reopened around 4:10 p.m. Boulder County Parks & Open Space also posted on social media at 11:27 a.m. Saturday, saying that the 2.6-mile Boulder Canyon Trail, which runs along Boulder Canyon Drive, was closed for "an ongoing investigation." It also reopened shortly after 4 p.m.
The road closure allowed investigators to recover the body, conduct an investigation and allowed for the first responders to work safely amid hazardous conditions, the sheriff's office said.
This case into Trussell's disappearance started around noon on Feb. 13, when CU Boulder posted on social media that its police department was trying to locate Trussell. The FBI also posted online that it was assisting in the search for her.
The following day, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation issued a statewide Missing Indigenous Person Alert for Trussell. CU Boulder police said in an update it was "working with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies and first responders on campus, on the ground and in the air."
The agencies said she was last seen on Feb. 9 at her residence hall on campus, and was wearing a blue or gray jacket, dark-colored or red pants and white platform sneakers. She was also carrying a "distinct" blue purse with a pink star.
This is a developing story. Denver7 will have more in our 10 p.m. report. Watch on Denver7 or on our website.
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