US park rangers searching for a 27-year-old Dubliner missing from a hiking trail in the state of Wyoming are to refocus their efforts after receiving new information.
Rangers in Grand Teton National Park received a report of a sighting on June 8th of a man fitting Cian McLaughlin’s description by a local climbing guide.
Cian McLaughlin, who studied at Dublin Institute of Technology and works as a snowboard instructor at Jackson Hole in the Rocky Mountains, has not been seen since June 8th.
Search efforts continued today in Grand Teton for 27-year-old Cian McLaughlin, who has now been missing for 8 days.
A June 8 sighting of a man fitting McLaughlin's description by local climbing guide will modify search efforts for tomorrow.
Info: https://t.co/flP8u9hpc7 pic.twitter.com/smYP3Fb0ZF— Grand Teton National Park (@GrandTetonNPS) June 17, 2021
The guide reported seeing the man hiking up the Garnet Canyon trail around 3.45pm on June 8th.
He described him as a solo hiker who had shoulder-length hair and was wearing round glasses, a white shirt, shorts, and a hat. The guide also reported the man as having tattoos on his arms and carrying a bottle of water.
Based on this new information, search operations in the park have been adjusted to focus more on Garnet Canyon.
The Dublin man was reported missing on June 13th by Teton County Sheriff’s Office. His car was later found at the start of a hiking trail in the 310,000-acre park.
The National Park Service (NPS), the US government agency leading the search for Mr McLaughlin, said he was last seen in the town of Jackson on the afternoon of Tuesday, June 8th.
He failed to report for work in Jackson on Thursday, June 10th and the local sheriff’s office received a missing-person report late on the night of Saturday, June 12th.
Grand Teton National Park was contacted early on June 13th when the sheriff’s office received information indicating that Mr McLaughlin may be hiking in the park. A spokeswoman for the National Park Service (NPS) said that park teams with search dogs were out searching the park for the missing man.
She said that Mr McLaughlin is believed to have headed out for a “day hike” without a backpack with him but that “no one knows where he intended to go or where he did go”.
His car was located at Lupine Meadows Trailhead on the morning of June 13th at an elevation of 6,732ft (2,052 metres). The NPS spokeswoman said that there is still snow in the park at about 8,000ft.
The Dubliner’s Facebook page says he started working at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort last December and that he previously lived in the French ski resort of Chamonix.
