ST. GEORGE, Utah — In the twilight between Sunday and Monday, Washington County Sheriff Sgt. Darrell Cashin got one of those urgent alerts he's received many times over the last 30 years.
Somebody needed his help.
In this case, it was two missing hikers in the red mountains of Snow Canyon. But it turned out, Cashin couldn't rush to anyone's aid this time.
"I still got a notification and I could look at it. And then all these ideas start running through my head... and then realize that's not my job anymore," Cashin said.
In the rugged terrain of southern Utah, where adventure seekers often find themselves in peril, Cashin has been responsible for the hundreds of rescued hikers, stranded climbers, missing people and stranded off-roaders for nearly 30 years. As the commander of Washington County Sheriff's Search and Rescue, Cashin has led countless missions to save lives.
His own heart has now forced him to hang up his gear.
Cashin started with Search and Rescue in 1995, when he left his security business to offer his expertise to a small team of volunteers.
"I happened to be a dive instructor and I could see some potential issues, so I offered free training to them. And that's kind of how I got hooked into Search and Rescue," he explained.
Five years later, he became their commander.
Over nearly three decades, he transformed the team from basic skills to highly specialized, with between 130 to 180 rescues each year.
That included rescuing a family of five from Snow Canyon flood waters in 2023, and making national news as he led efforts to find a Los Angeles woman in Zion National Parkafter she went missing for nearly two weeks.
"I don't remember the names of the people that you rescued. But I do remember those who didn't make it.," he said.
During a routine cardio test at the sheriff's office on Oct. 10, Cashin suffered a severe heart attack.
"I pushed through it. I got the four minutes and I got up lightheaded, still burning in the chest," he recounted.
As a trained paramedic, Cashin knows about measuring troponins. When you have a heart attack, that's how medical personnel gauge how serious it is
“Normally it's like .01 to .04,” Cashin said. “I had asked the cardiologist that worked on me in the ICU how bad they were, and he told me they were almost 5,000.”
And if that wasn’t enough, he got some alarming news afterward.
"I've had a couple doctors tell me that if I'm here in three to five years, I'll be lucky... And I thought, where do I want to spend that time? And I want to spend it with my family, with my wife, my kids, my grandkids."
The demands of the job were relentless, with Cashin on call 24/7 for three decades.
"This particular job follows you everywhere you go," he said, recalling two interrupted anniversary dinners and countless middle-of-the-night calls.
As a farewell gesture, Cashin's team raised funds to purchase his 14-year-old rescue truck from the sheriff's office, gifting it to him as a reminder of his service.
"I walk outside and I see that truck in my driveway and I still feel like I'm a part of it," Cashin said.
