- William Anthony Ott, missing since 2012, was identified from remains found in Arizona in 2023
- Ott disappeared during a solo hike in the Grand Canyon and was reported missing after failing to return
- His remains were discovered by the Hualapai Tribe near the original search area in December 2023
A man who disappeared during a solo hike in the Grand Canyon nearly 15 years ago has finally been identified after human remains were found in Arizona, reported People.com.
Arizona authorities said that human remains found in December belonged to William Anthony Ott, 65, who disappeared while hiking the Grand Canyon in 2012.
The Coconino County Sheriff's Office said in a news release on Tuesday, July 21, that Ott was reported missing in May 2012 after he failed to return from his hike.
Agencies, including the National Park Service and the Arizona Department of Public Safety, carried out a search but were unable to determine his whereabouts.
The sheriff's office said that members of the Hualapai Tribe found human remains in December in the area where the initial search for Ott had begun. The remains were transferred to the sheriff's office and the Coconino County Medical Examiner's Office.
Working with the Arizona Department of Public Safety, authorities confirmed through DNA analysis that the remains belonged to Ott.
According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), Ott began a three-week solo through-hike in a remote area of the Hualapai Indian reservation on April 5, 2012.
He was expected to return on April 28 but never came back and was reported missing 12 days after he was overdue.
Scott Thybony, a friend of Ott who took part in the original search, said in 2017 that Ott was an experienced hiker.
He said that Ott spent 78 days walking the length of the Grand Canyon in 1981, becoming the first person to complete the traverse on the north side.
Thybony said that Ott was searching for thousand-year-old rock art panels in a remote area of the Grand Canyon when he disappeared.
He further said that Ott had visited his office several times to talk about his passion for a style of otherworldly rock art painted thousands of years ago. He added that the multi-coloured pictographs fascinated Ott, and that being difficult to find and even harder to reach made them even more appealing to him.
In an interview with Outside, Thybony, an anthropologist, said that long before he vanished, Ott was living off the grid after selling nearly all of his possessions and building a cabin with his own tools in Cave Junction, Oregon. He added that Ott returned to Arizona about once a year to hike the Grand Canyon and search for ancient rock art.
Authorities have not yet shared a cause of death. However, Thybony told Outside that his friend's body was found at the base of a 15-foot cliff and that his main backpack was missing.
