The remains of Mitchell Dale Stehling have been found at Mesa Verde National Park/NPS
Seven years after a Texas man vanished while on a hike at Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado his remains have been found.
Mitchell Dale Stehling, 51, had set out in June 2013 for a short hike to the park's Spruce Tree House, a 130-room archaeological site with eight ceremonial chambers, known as kivas. The man's wife, Denean Stehling, speculated that her “directionally challenged” husband, hiking without water or a map on a hot and sunny day, might have been misled by a sign pointing to the Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum and inadvertently went off trail.
A family spotted him on the nearby Petroglyph Point Trail. This 2.4-mile-long, narrow, and rocky path requires hikers to clamber in places up a stone staircase to reach the top. There are places along the trail where it wouldn’t be hard for someone to wander into the backcountry.
The family told Stehling’s wife they leapfrogged past one another and were together at the petroglyph panel 1.4 miles from the trailhead, but they never saw him afterwards. Neither did anyone else, though later there were reports from a hiker on the Petroglyph Point Trail who claimed to have heard someone calling for help.
Mesa Verde officials announced Friday that an anonymous tip led to the discovery of human remains in a remote area of the park. Park law enforcement rangers, with assistance from ISB and Montezuma County Coroner’s Office, located and retrieved the remains on Thursday.
"Personal items located with the remains are consistent with identification, and the presumptive identity of the remains is that of Mitchell Dale Stehling," the park said in a release. "DNA analysis will be performed to positively identify the remains. There is no indication of foul play. The remains were found approximately 4.2 miles from the point where Stehling was last seen."
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When someone gets turned around, lost, they don't always make the best decisions. And alot of the time it looks mysterious as to why or where they went/were. i don't think anything sinister happened. I've been to Mesa Verde with my wife and can see how hiking down into a canyon would lead you to walk until you found a way up as most are steep cliffs and end up miles away with no water. You might be suprised how little a drop we are in an endless ocean it's so easy to get lost and not be found. I think all the comments about wierd theory's is disrespectful to his wife and family. How sad to be visiting a park with your wife and have this happen. My heart goes out to Denean.
If it was a hot day and he became dehydrated he may have left the trail in search of a stream and then the mind will do strange things when you're dying of thirst
I'm very sorry for your family's loss. I hope you now have some peace and closure after this ordeal. Prayers to you.
So much for the fantastical theories of portals in space time and wormholes and aliens. It should have been obvious from the start that the guy had to have gotten lost or fell of a cliff on that narrow ledge. Why do some people have to gravitate toward the bizarre and spooky when there are obvious rational explanations?
Read The Cold Vaniah by Jon Billman. It's astounding how many people go missing the the wilderness, in National Parks and other forests run by the National Parks Service and the Office of Forest Management (and how terrible these services are when it comes to looking for people). This guy is mentioned briefly.
If you've ever been involved with the legal system as a witness , you would know it's just a mess and you can end up being forced to testify over many years and appeals and LE interviews. I would guess the anonymous tipster did what I've done.... contact LE but just stay out of it. It was a death. Not necessary for tipster to get involved.
I think it makes perfect sense. It's easy to wander off a trail in vast area's like these and get lost very quickly. With the hot days and cold nights with no water and no gear, it is unlikely that one would survive if not found quickly. And it's hard to find someone in that vast wilderness. It's like finding a canoe in the ocean. It is a far stretch to say that this particular man would have run into some kind of drug trouble here. Sometimes things are just as simple as they are. People don't realize how dangerous the wilderness can be. They can't imagine they could die there. Yet they do. We need to respect nature.
We were on that trail this past June, you cannot easily get off trail (I am directionality challenged), there is an obvious trail. I will say though that after the petroglyp panel (where he was last seen) you do have to climb straight up a wall which for an older person (I am 64) it can be a challenge. A younger couple waited to help us as they knew it could be dangerous. If you lose control and fall backward you will fall off of the trail and down toward the canyon floor, it is my guess tha this is what happen to this poor soul. It would be near impossible to climb back up, perhaps he just continued down and onward in hopes of finding help or his way out. This is truly sad as he was quite close to safety.