Found Deceased AZ - Kaitlin Kenney, 21, missing from Grand Canyon River Trip, 11 Jan 2013

[LisaCougar]

A 21-year-old woman from Englewood, Colo., disappeared over the weekend during a river trip through the Grand Canyon.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news...yon-river-trip

[LisaCougar]

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. - The mother of a 21-year-old Englewood woman who disappeared Friday on a river trip through the Grand Canyon writes on Facebook that Kaitlin Anne Kenney is "with the angels."

Authorities, however, have only said that they are searching for Kenney.


http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news...yon-river-trip

[summer_breeze]

http://www.coloradoan.com/viewart/20...riz-river-trip

6:14 AM, Jan 15, 2013

<snipped>

Ground-based search crews intensified their efforts Monday in the Tapeats Creek area.

[summer_breeze]

http://www.9news.com/news/article/31...man-speaks-out

10:57 PM, Jan 14, 2013

<snipped>

Linnea Kenney, the woman's mother, said she believes her daughter did not survive when she accidentally fell into the frigid cold water.

[summer_breeze]

http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2013/...aled-back.html

By Associated Press on Wed, Jan 16, 2013
POSTED: 7:06 am

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. (AP) — Authorities are scaling back the search for a Colorado woman reported missing from a private river trip in Grand Canyon National Park.

[AzPistonsGirl]

why the assumption she drowned? or ended up in the water at all?

[orangesandapples]

Originally Posted by AzPistonsGirl

why the assumption she drowned? or ended up in the water at all?

My assumption is that that's what the friends must have said, considering the mother wasn't there. If it was dark and they were camped close to the water, it is a reasonable explanation, though I would personally want quite a bit more searching done before I came to that conclusion.

[angelmom]

Originally Posted by AzPistonsGirl

why the assumption she drowned? or ended up in the water at all?

Where else would she go? We did a one day rafting trip down the Colorado and our guide was telling us about these month long trips. In some spots he said a helicopter can't even get in to rescue someone who is critically injured - the only way out is to keep going down the river.

If there's nowhere to go from their camp site except into the water, then she couldn't have survived long. The water temperature is barely above freezing in the middle of July, much less in January. And if she fell in but managed to pull herself out onto a rock, she probably would have died quickly (but they may have found her body by now). It is bitterly cold and icy there, with nighttime temps in the teens.

I cannot imagine the pain, but it sounds like her mother has a very realistic view of the situation.

[Wolf Dreamer]

More photos and video here

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...nd-Canyon.html

[Pensfan]

How does a 21-year-old just accidentally walk through shallow water into the deepest rushing water without knowing she was headed into dangerous rushing water? Why would she do this in the middle of the night? Odd. She had to be wasted, mentally ill, or someone assisted her disappearance. Why is her mom so certain that her daughter's disappearance is not foul play?
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/01/15...o-disappeared/

[summer_breeze]

Moving this thread to the Discussion forum

[pdxmama]

Originally Posted by Pensfan

How does a 21-year-old just accidentally walk through shallow water into the deepest rushing water without knowing she was headed into dangerous rushing water? Why would she do this in the middle of the night? Odd. She had to be wasted, mentally ill, or someone assisted her disappearance. Why is her mom so certain that her daughter's disappearance is not foul play?
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/01/15...o-disappeared/

I agree. I mean, I get it if she fell out of a raft but she got up in the middle of the night, waded into the water and drowned? What am I missing?

[JeannaT]

Originally Posted by Pensfan

How does a 21-year-old just accidentally walk through shallow water into the deepest rushing water without knowing she was headed into dangerous rushing water? Why would she do this in the middle of the night? Odd. She had to be wasted, mentally ill, or someone assisted her disappearance. Why is her mom so certain that her daughter's disappearance is not foul play?
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/01/15...o-disappeared/

I would say it's quite possible she got up in the middle of the night to go pee, and in the darkness fell into the river. For some reason, when I camp, I ALWAYS have to get up, put on shoes, and go outside the tent to pee.

[Pensfan]

Originally Posted by JeannaT

I would say it's quite possible she got up in the middle of the night to go pee, and in the darkness fell into the river. For some reason, when I camp, I ALWAYS have to get up, put on shoes, and go outside the tent to pee.

Many people are found deceased in the numerous rivers in Pittsburgh. I have never read about a sober, mentally health adult that accidentally walked into one of these rivers and died.

Naturally created rivers have a border of shallow water before dropping off to deeper depths. When Kaitlin first stepped into the shallow water, it is logical to think that she would have backed up or turned around instead of proceeding to walk into the deepest part of the river. In addition, the increasingly noisy river sound should have warned Kaitlin that she was dangerously close to the river.

Something is odd about the assumption that she just accidentally walked into the river, IMO.

[belimom]

Originally Posted by pdxmama

I agree. I mean, I get it if she fell out of a raft but she got up in the middle of the night, waded into the water and drowned? What am I missing?

This is really odd. Who would go wade into a creek in the middle of the night in the Grand Canyon in January?!? Any grogginess would evaporate with the first contact your big toe made with the frigid water. Has anyone said they saw her go in the water? I'd be more inclined to think she wandered off and got injured/disoriented. Something is off here.

OT: We visited the Grand Canyon this year for the first time (it is amazing btw - pictures do it no justice). Being the WS'er that I am, I bought a huge book that chronicles deaths at the Grand Canyon. It's very intriguing - but I hope Kaitlin doesn't make into a revision someday...

[belimom]

Now I'm having visions of that camping/hiking trip movie where one of the hikers was a murderer and picked them off one by one. (Really, when you go on a group trip, you don't know who these other people are who signed up. Wonder if they have looked at everyone carefully?)

[pdxmama]

Originally Posted by belimom

This is really odd. Who would go wade into a creek in the middle of the night in the Grand Canyon in January?!? Any grogginess would evaporate with the first contact your big toe made with the frigid water. Has anyone said they saw her go in the water? I'd be more inclined to think she wandered off and got injured/disoriented. Something is off here.

OT: We visited the Grand Canyon this year for the first time (it is amazing btw - pictures do it no justice). Being the WS'er that I am, I bought a huge book that chronicles deaths at the Grand Canyon. It's very intriguing - but I hope Kaitlin doesn't make into a revision someday...

Ha ha! I bought the same book at Yellowstone! All those people trying to pet bears...

[belimom]

Originally Posted by pdxmama

Ha ha! I bought the same book at Yellowstone! All those people trying to pet bears...

At the GC, many of them were trying to get a cool picture from the edge of the rim...

[terracotta]

I had a friend that has done a river trip in the GC. She said they have to carry out everything...so they want them to pee in the water....leave no trace theory to disturb nature as little as possible. Maybe she did go to pee and slipped in the water and fell backwards....

[Pensfan]

Originally Posted by terracotta

I had a friend that has done a river trip in the GC. She said they have to carry out everything...so they want them to pee in the water....leave no trace theory to disturb nature as little as possible. Maybe she did go to pee and slipped in the water and fell backwards....

Carrying your trash out of the canyon makes sense, but I really hope she wasn't in the river at night to urinate.

Any MALE that tells females to walk out through slippery, uneven rocks into the Colorado river to urinate (Skull fracture, anyone?) needs many swift kicks in the bum, IMO. As soon as all the other mammals are required to pee in the dangerous Colorado river, the human visitors should too. Human urine has the same components as bear urine, bobcat urine, deer urine, rabbit urine and etc... All mammals' urine is 95% water .

[Maiko]

Originally Posted by belimom

This is really odd. Who would go wade into a creek in the middle of the night in the Grand Canyon in January?!? Any grogginess would evaporate with the first contact your big toe made with the frigid water. Has anyone said they saw her go in the water? I'd be more inclined to think she wandered off and got injured/disoriented. Something is off here.

snipped and BBM -

I agree, I imagined her yelling out - screaming - something vocal if she had fallen in to the cold water; if she lost her footing and slipped. However, if she slipped and hit her head hard, maybe no sound. ??

I don't understand why her mom is so quick to say she's with the angels though, I wouldn't give up so quickly. JMO and IMHO and all that...

[belimom]

Here is some more info... Seems like she was quite experienced with hiking/camping, even though this was her first trip rafting the Colorado River.

The 21-year-old woman who graduated from Cherry Creek High School and was studying anthropology and American Indian cultures at the University of Montana was half-way into a monthlong river trip at the Grand Canyon

Read more here: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2013/01...#storylink=cpy

[BethInAK]

no one saw or heard her fall into the water -unless there were footprints how do they know this is what happened?

[BethInAK]

Originally Posted by terracotta

I had a friend that has done a river trip in the GC. She said they have to carry out everything...so they want them to pee in the water....leave no trace theory to disturb nature as little as possible. Maybe she did go to pee and slipped in the water and fell backwards....

this was my guess - you throw on your boots and squat in the water in the shallows - maybe she stepped into a hole and down (and off) she went

[belimom]

I think it is likely that Kaitlin had some kind of accident during the night or early morning hours. However, I find it much more probably that she took an early morning walk/hike and something happened that way, rather than fell in the river while going to the potty.

And I'm still not discounting the small chance that a fellow camper did something - I really don't think that's what happened but I do think it is possible.