Body believed to be missing hiker found in American Fork Canyon

A body believed to be that of 28-year-old Robert “Bobby” Healey, a hiker missing since Sunday, was found Tuesday in American Fork Canyon. | Adobe Stock image

AMERICAN FORK — Searchers located a body Tuesday near the area where teams were looking for a hiker missing since Sunday.

According to a tweet from the Utah County Sheriff’s Office sent about 1:45 p.m., a Department of Public Safety helicopter “located a body in the area where the search has been ongoing for Bobby Healey near the mouth of American Fork Canyon. Positive ID will be confirmed later.”

Robert “Bobby” Healey, 28, of Saratoga Springs, was reported missing Sunday. His car was found by authorities near American Fork Canyon. Searchers also believed he was in the area based on pinging his cell phone, according to the sheriff’s office.

The body was discovered about 11:30 a.m. in an area with extremely rugged terrain, according to the sheriff’s office. Although the body still needs to be positively identified, it is believed to be Healey and that he apparently fell, the sheriff’s office said.

“The thing that kind of clued us in, too, that was weird, that we’ve never had before, was there was a bighorn sheep right by the victim,” Utah Department of Public Safety pilot Bret Hutchings said. “We were looking at the sheep and we happened to see the victim.”

The helicopter crew that recovered the body estimated the cliff that the hiker fell off to be roughly 250 to 300 feet high.

“You don’t have to go very far to get into what we would call highly technical terrain,” Utah County Sheriff’s Sgt. Spencer Cannon said.

Contributing: Dan Rascon

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