Rangers have recovered the body of a missing New Mexico woman from the Grand Canyon, marking the third person to turn up dead at the national park in just a week’s time.
The body of 20-year-old Leticia Castillo was found some 150 feet below Twin Overlooks on the canyon’s South Rim following a days-long search, mired by inclement weather and hazardous terrain, the National Park Service said in a news release on Thursday.
Castillo seemingly entered the canyon on Saturday and had not been heard from since.
Her death is being investigated by the park service and the local medical examiner’s office. No other details were provided.
The discovery of her remains came just days after an unnamed 43-year-old man from Missouri died during a botched BASE jump from Yavapai Point. The extreme sport typically involves a person leaping from a fixed point, like a bridge or cliff with a parachute. In this instance, however, the man somehow separated from his parachute and fell 500 feet to his death.
He died on Aug. 1, according to officials, who have emphasized that BASE jumping is prohibited across the national park system.
Just one day earlier, Abel Joseph Mejia, a 20-year-old from North Carolina, slipped over the edge of the South Rim, approximately 1/4 mile west of Pipe Creek Overlook. Rangers found his body 400 feet below the rim on July 31.
In a post on Facebook, Turning Point Pentecostal Church said Mejia was on a mission trip at the time.
So far this year, 11 deaths have been recorded at the national park.