She seemed to brighten everyone's day with her smile.''Įvans said news the girl was missing cast a pall over meetings of the Highland LDS 11th Ward on Sunday. She was always out in the neighborhood walking and smiling at everyone. Tanya was 16 years old, the oldest of the Humpheries children. ``They were one of the strongest families I know, loving and supportive of each other.'' ``I was just always really impressed with the unity they had in their family,'' he said. He said Sunday night he will remember Tanya as a former foreign exchange student to Germany who was happy and loved family activities. Mike Evans and his family have lived two houses from the Humpheries in Highland for the past six years. ``We just talked about strategy for a search here in a recent training meeting,'' the sheriff said. Lacy said White Canyon and the ``Black Hole,'' a side canyon, is ``the worst area to have to do a search in.'' Members of the hiking group said they were unaware that flash-flood warnings had been issued for the Blanding area and most of San Juan County early Saturday morning and didn't know heavy rains had fallen in the area Thursday and Friday. Humpheries' father joined the San Juan County rescue team and searched the canyon rim on Sunday. Midafternoon Sunday, six dog search teams from American Search and Rescue of Salt Lake City joined the search effort. Sunday, its crew using special night vision goggles, but found nothing. A search helicopter from the Arizona Department of Public Safety flew the canyon about 3 a.m. The search team attempted a search Saturday night, but conditions were too dark and dangerous, according to the sheriff. Saturday, said 25 members of the San Juan County search and rescue unit, including rope rescue specialists, combed the canyon from early Sunday morning until Humpheries' body was found. Lacy, who was called to the scene about 8:30 p.m. The six who initially made it across the canyon hiked out and alerted authorities at nearby Hite Marina at Lake Powell on Saturday night. Overnight, the six crossed the water and hiked out, showing up at the search camp about 7 a.m. The remaining six - on the south side of the canyon - were trapped on a ledge, waiting for the waters to recede. ``They saw her bob to the surface twice downstream and then disappear,'' Lacy said. Others in the group say she managed to get on a rock only to have a large log - swept by the water down the canyon - hit the rock and knock her into the water.
``She had a life jacket on and the others tied several jackets together in a chain for her to hold onto.''Īpparently one of the jackets slipped from the chain and the girl fell into the rapidly rushing water - churned up by flash flooding in the area. Lacy, the sheriff, says the dead girl was trying to cross to the north side of the canyon. The first six were trying to help the other seven make it across the water. One of the group, 13-year-old Sam Kernal said, ``As we were going to cross, the water began rising quickly.'' Six of the adults and teen-agers had crossed over the water while it was still ankle deep. San Juan County Sheriff Mike Lacy said Tanya, her father ``T.J.'' and a sister and two brothers were in the group that planned on walking through a unique slot canyon called ``The Black Hole.'' Humpheries was hiking with 12 other adults and teens from several Highland families when the fatal accident occurred, according to San Juan County Sheriff's officials.Ī search for the girl continued from early Sunday morning until her body was found about 10 miles west of Natural Bridges National Monument or 63 miles west of Blanding.
The Salt Lake Tribune, September 16, 1996īLANDING - Search and rescue teams probed pools of water in the remote San Juan County White Canyon and found the body of Highland teen-ager Tanya Humpheries late Sunday afternoon - about 24 hours after friends and family watched her fall into boiling flood waters and wash downstream. Waters Overtake Highland Hikers In Scenic Canyon
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