TELLER COUNTY, Colo. — A Naval recruiter in Colorado Springs was found dead on Thursday following a four-day search for him in the Pikes Peak area.
The search started Sunday. Around 3 p.m. that day, the Teller County Sheriff's Office learned that a hiker named Joel Tovar had gone missing. The person who reported him missing said Tovar had made concerning statements before he disappeared.
Deputies found Tovar's car in the parking lot for the Horsethief Falls Trail off Highway 67 and searched it for any evidence of where he may have gone. They found hiking gear and a cell phone in the car. Deputies also searched the trail and talked with hikers, but did not find him that day, the sheriff's office said.
On Monday morning, about a dozen search and rescue personnel, and two tracking dog teams, responded to help with the search. By that evening, they had searched 36 miles of trail, including the Horsethief Falls Trail, Pancake Rocks Trail, and the Crags Trail, but once nightfall arrived they all returned to the trailhead with a plan to continue the search Tuesday.
"Teller County Deputies, Search and Rescue, and tracking dog teams are being deployed again in the effort," the sheriff's office wrote on social media on Tuesday. "The military has also provided a MEDEVAC UH-60 Blackhawk to aid in the search."
On Thursday around 5 p.m., the sheriff's office shared that search and rescue personnel had found and recovered Tovar's remains. His body was found about 400 feet southeast of Horsethief Falls on top of a steep rock formation and tucked back on a ledge, the sheriff's office said.
The deputy coroner and a detective with the Teller County Sheriff's Office inspected the scene where his remains were found before they began the complex undertaking of retrieving and safely moving his body off the mountain.
His family was notified.
The sheriff's office thanked everybody who helped with the search.
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