Sept 22, 2021
Kim Crumbo, a Navy SEAL veteran who served two tours in Vietnam, was still missing Wednesday after he never returned with his half-brother from their four-night trip on Shoshone Lake in Wyoming.
nypost.com
Veteran Kim Crumbo, 74, was a Navy SEAL who served two tours in Vietnam.Instagram
Search crews in Yellowstone National Park are looking for an ex-Navy SEAL described as a “monumental hero” who vanished during a canoe trip with his half-brother, who was found dead, officials said.
Kim Crumbo, a 74-year-old Navy SEAL veteran who served two tours in Vietnam, was still missing Wednesday after he never returned with his half-brother from their four-night trip on Shoshone Lake in Wyoming, park officials said.
Rescuers on Monday found the body of his brother, Mark O’Neill of Chimacum, Washington, along the eastern shore.
O’Neill likely drowned, but an official cause of death has not been determined, park spokeswoman Morgan Warthin said.
Near where his body was found, crews located a canoe, paddle, flotation device and other items, officials said.
A vacant campsite was also located on the south side of the lake, which can be subject to high winds and sudden storms.
A relative had reported the two experienced boaters missing Sunday when it became apparent they were overdue from their backcountry canoe trip.
Both of the men had previously worked at Arizona’s Grand Canyon National Park in various capacities, including as river rangers, park officials said.
The body of Mark O’Neill, Kim Crumbo’s half-brother, was found along the eastern shore of Shoshone Lake.
Crumbo had co-founded the conservation group Grand Canyon Wildlands Council, which later joined forces with another group to form Wild Arizona.
His colleague Kelly Burke said those who know Crumbo have been reconnecting over his disappearance “to hold each other up and put that energy in leaving the door open for him to walk back in.”
“It’s Kim Crumbo, after all,” she said. “He’s a monumental hero and legend of a man. We can’t bring ourselves to believe he wouldn’t emerge from this.”