Search and Rescue recovers body of missing hiker

Tip Top Search and Rescue and the Sublette County Sheriff's Office were looking for a missing hiker last week, and on Thursday they reported recovering his body.

On Tuesday, August 22, the Sublette County Sheriff's Office reported that Tip Top Search and Rescue was seeking public assistance to locate John Diepholz in the Wind River Range out of the Elkhart Park Trail head in the greater Wall Lake area.

Diepholz was reported missing to Sublette County Dispatch the afternoon of Monday, August 21 after he was overdue from a planned 11-day journey into the Wind River Range. His trip began August 5 and he was due to return on August 16. After John failed to contact his family, a search and rescue plan was formulated.

Last Thursday morning, August 24, at approximately 11:30 a.m., Tip Top Search and Rescue members located an unresponsive male near an unnamed lake above Spider Lake, according to a press release. The man had succumbed to injuries which were consistent with a fall. The man was later identified as the missing hiker, John Diepholz.

"We want to thank the public and backcountry hikers for getting the word out and keeping an eye out for John, as well as all agencies involved including the Bridger Teton National Forest, Tip Top Search and Rescue, and the SCSO for coordinating efforts to successfully find him," the sheriff's office press release said. "Tip Top Search and Rescue and the Sublette County Sheriff's Office would like to extend our sincerest condolences to the family of John for their loss. It was not the outcome any of us wanted, but we can at least bring some closure to all involved."

 

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