A man hiking with his sister and her family went missing Saturday during what was supposed to be a day hike from Boulder Lake towards Burn Lake.

According to Tony Chambers of Tip Top Search and Rescue (TTSAR), Bodie Moody, 28, of Rock Springs left the rest of his party near the top of the ridge and headed back to the truck. Moody’s sister Mya Boren and her boyfriend followed him ten minutes later but never found him, and when they reached the parking lot, he wasn’t there.

His body was later found around 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday. The cause of death is yet unknown, but an autopsy is being performed and Deputy County Attorney Randall Hanson said there is no suspicion of foul play.

A statement from the Sublette County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) said Boren reported her brother missing at 5:24 p.m. July 17, almost 72 hours before he was located.

Chambers said TTSAR had immediately assembled a search party of hikers, horseback riders, all-terrain vehicles, dogs and a helicopter, but by Monday afternoon, he had not been located.

Ten volunteers went out to look for Moody Saturday night; there were 19 Sunday, and they were back down to 12 Monday afternoon, but Chambers said he expected more to arrive later that day.

The SCSO report of the incident said that Moody suffered from schizophrenia and wass without his medicine. Chambers said Moody’s medical issues increased his risk and caused additional complications for search and rescue.

“When we got this call, had it been someone in good health with good preparedness and backcountry experience, we might have waited until the morning,” he said. “This one ended up with a pretty high urgency level though.”

Boren told Deputy Hueckstaedt, the responding officer Saturday, her brother was carrying only water, wass unfamiliar with the Boulder and Burnt Lakes area and wass inexperienced at hiking and outdoor survival.

Chambers said the relatively warm nights had been to Moody’s advantage, reducing the risk from exposure and elements.

TTSAR used local helicopter to fly low over the search area, aiding in the search for Moody, but the ship was too small to evacuate him had he been found.

“We’re using this helicopter primarily for air searching,” Chambers said. “It’s a huge benefit in the fact you can cover an enormous amount of ground in a much shorter amount of time.”

The search helicopter is a two-seater with clear windows, good for flying low and scanning the ground, Chambers said. It cannot, however, transport search personnel to the primary search area, an attribute Chambers would like to have to cut down the hiking and riding the searchers have to do.

“We’ve got people on top [of the ridge], and they’ve been assigned a huge area to cover, but they don’t think they’ll be able to get it searched today,” he said.

Sunday evening, TTSAR called in a Wyoming Air National Guard helicopter to aid in the search. There is an infrared scope mounted on the front of the ship called FLIR (forward-looking infrared), which Chambers said senses body heat.

“If the subject can’t or won’t respond for some reason, the infrared acts as a heat-detector, and we should be able to see him that way,” he said.

Moody was spotted by a helicopter crew Tuesday afternoon about 3,000 feet north of the north end of Boulder Lake, almost within eyesight of the command center, Hanson said.

mrawlins@pinedaleroundup.com



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