SUMMIT CO., Utah — Search and rescue volunteer groups from across the state of Utah and the country worked tirelessly to try and locate a missing man who was reported overdue on a hunting trip on October 14, 2019.
A year later, the Crumrine family is in Utah meeting with Summit County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue volunteers and deputies who helped search for 69-year-old Carl Crumrine for more than 2,500 hours.
We were happy to meet the Crumrine family today. They wanted to meet some of the professionals responsible for searching for and finding Carl Crumrine. https://t.co/tW1R3w4Hr5
— Sheriff Justin (@SummitCountySO) October 14, 2020
“I was wondering if we would ever find him if he had gotten lost,” said Paul Crumrine, Carl’s son. “The way he went now finding out he didn’t get lost that right there is one of the biggest reliefs that I had.”
Human remains, clothing, a survival pack and a hunting rifle were located by a hunter in the Lyman Lake area in eastern Summit County on the morning of October 5, 2020. The state medical examiner determined the remains to be those of Carl Crumrine days later.
“I definitely feel like a great sense of closure and now that we know what has happened, he didn’t get lost,” said Paul to Fox13. “Just that ‘not knowing’ for the last year has really been hard.”
According to Summit County Sheriff’s Office, Carl’s remains were found within approximately one mile from where he had been camping in 2019. “The area where his remains were found is a very dense wooded area with fallen timber,” said the Sheriff’s Office in a news release.
Through fair-weather conditions to rain and deep snow, SAR volunteers combed parts of the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest looking for any sign of Crumrine from the air, on horseback and on the ground. Those looking forCarl included members of Garrett Bardsley Foundation, who has worked around the country to search for missing people in areas where they aren’t originally from. Carl was in Utah from West Virginia on a hunting trip.
As of Wednesday, October 14, 2020, Carl Crumrine’s cause of death is still pending, according to the Summit County Sheriff’s Office.
“I’d just like to thank everybody for their support over the last year, I have people praying for my family and they don’t even know me so that right there is also nice support and a great feeling,” said Paul Crumrine on Wednesday.
In lieu of flowers at an upcoming memorial, the Crumrine’s are asking people to consider donating to the Summit County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue team. Like most SAR programs across the country, Summit County SAR relies heavily on donations to function.
In Memory of Carl Crumrine
Utah, Summit County Search and Rescue
Friends of SCSAR
c/o Kevin McCarthy
PO Box 680608
Park City, UT 84068-0608
