NPS Press Release: Female Body Found in the Colorado River
Release date: 7-31-06
Grand Canyon, Ariz. – >At approximately 6:00 p.m. last night a private river trip located a female body in the Colorado River at River Mile 104 within Grand Canyon National Park just below Ruby Rapid. The body was located on the right side of the river in an eddy. The private trip used a satellite phone to call Grand Canyon Dispatch to report the body and their location.
National Park Service Rangers began a recovery operation early this morning [7-31-06]. Once a reconnaissance flight was completed, a park helicopter inserted a recovery team along with a Zodiac boat to recover the body. With no helicopter landing zone on the right side of the river, park rangers transported the body across the river by boat where a National Park Service helicopter was brought in to transport the body to the South Rim Helibase. The body was then transferred to the Coconino County Medical Examiners Office and taken to Flagstaff, Ariz.
Park Rangers have been searching the Colorado River below Hermit Creek (River Mile 95) for Iryna Shylo, a Grand Canyon resident and Ukrainian citizen who was last seen by her hiking partner around 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, July 16. The body recovered today was located approximately nine miles downriver from where Ms. Shylo was last seen and where tennis shoes matching the type she was wearing were located over a week ago. Positive identification will be made by the Coconino County Medical Examiner.
Ms. Shylo and a hiking partner had hiked down the Hermit Trail to the Colorado River on Sunday, July 16 and had planned on spending the night in the canyon before hiking out the next day. Her hiking partner reported her missing after she failed to return from a hike downriver.
As with any fatality or major incident, an investigation is being conducted by the National Park Service.