MOHAVE COUNTY, Ariz. - Mohave County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue units have found the body of the missing man from Hurricane, 33-year-old Ryan Daniel Mertlich.
The Washington County Search and Rescue Horse Mounted team assisting Mohave County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue found Mertlich in Arizona Thursday afternoon, almost 7 miles south of the Utah state line, 6 miles west from where his vehicle was found.
They found his car about 3 miles south of the Utah border and 15 miles west of Colorado City, Arizona, where flash flooding killed numerous people Monday night.
Mertlich was reported missing Tuesday after he was last seen Monday night.
"He left our house about 5:45, and there was ominous black clouds headed towards Hurricane," Dan Mertlich, Ryan's father, said. " And I told him he was probably going to get wet on the way home."
Dan Mertlich said his son wasn't intimidated by the approaching storm.
"I know going though his mind, there was water, there was mud, he was going to go have fun," he said. "...We didn't know he didn't make it home until the next day. His wife called and says, 'When did Ryan leave? Because he didn't make it home that night.'"
Ryan leaves behind a wife in Hurricane and a daughter who lives in Washington State.
"He was a good kid, and he was a good parent," Dan Mertlich said of his son.
Wednesday afternoon, authorities found the man’s “heavily damaged” vehicle in a flood plain.
