Grand Teton scales back search for hiker missing 2 weeks

Published at 1:22 pm, June 21, 2021 | Updated at 1:30 pm, June 21, 2021

AP News Staff

mclaughlin — A recent photo of Cian McLaughlin shows him wearing sunglasses that match the description given by a local climbing guide who reported seeing a man matching his description in Garnet Canyon. The last credible sighting fitting the missing hiker’s description was around 3:45 p.m. June 8 near the Surprise Lake junction heading into Garnet Canyon. McLaughlin wears his hair at about shoulder-length and was seen on the trail wearing round glasses, a white shirt and shorts. | Courtesy Sargent Schutt, Jackson Hole News & Guide

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JACKSON, Wyoming (AP) — Searchers in Grand Teton National Park have scaled back efforts to find a hiker missing for almost two weeks.

Park staff will continue to patrol the backcountry and look for signs of Cian McLaughlin, 27, in a “continuous but limited mode,” park officials said.

The likelihood McLaughlin will be found alive diminishes by the day, park spokesman CJ Adams told the Jackson Hole News & Guide.

“But you know, there’s always a chance. So the park’s going to do what we can to find him,” Adams said Friday.

McLaughlin apparently went for a hike June 8 and didn’t show up for work a couple days later. Park officials began to focus their search June 13 after finding his vehicle at a trailhead.

The most recent credible sighting of him was on the afternoon of June 8 on a trail headed into a canyon on the eastern flank of the Teton Range.

McLaughlin speaks with an Irish accent and has shoulder-length, brown hair. He was wearing round glasses, a white shirt and shorts.

He reportedly wasn’t carrying a backpack but was holding a water bottle.

Investigators have spoken with more than 140 people with tips and information. They conducted more than 45 helicopter search missions using thermal imaging cameras and other high-tech gear, park officials said.

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