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Florida man, 79, found dead after going missing on Mount Washington
Authorities searched for William Davis for three days after officials said he "wandered off" on the summit last week.
A Florida man who went missing on the summit of Mount Washington after taking the Cog Train to the top has been found dead on the mountain following a three-day search, officials announced.
William Davis, 79, of Jacksonville, Florida, took the Cog Train to the top of Mount Washington on Wednesday and, once there, “wandered off,” the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department said. Davis’s wife told search and rescue personnel that her husband was seen in the area of the observation deck around 3:20 p.m., then disappeared.
“Phone contact was made by a State Park employee and it seemed that he was lost off trail, but didn’t appear to be very far from the summit ,” New Hampshire officials said. “He did not know where he was, but his description of the area made it seem that he would be easily located. However, after searching for over an hour he was not located and had stopped answering his phone.”
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Rescuers and volunteers searched for Davis for days, with crews scouring the slopes of the mountain. During the course of the search, the warm weather of Wednesday and Thursday deteriorated, officials said, with temperatures falling into the 40s with a 32-degree wind chill.
His body was found Friday around 11 a.m. 400-feet off the Lion Head Trail between Alpine Garden Trail and Tuckerman Ravine Trail, the department of Fish and Game said.
Officials said the 79-year-old’s exact cause of death still needs to be determined, but they said it appeared the Florida man suffered a “significant fall from a steep, rocky slope.”
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“There is no indication how Davis ended up at that location and how far he had traveled over rocky terrain to get there,” New Hampshire officials said. “He was not a hiker, had no map, and every indication is he wandered off the summit without telling anyone where he was going. It is a tragic end to a tough search mission and the Fish and Game Department would like to thank all the volunteers and staff who worked tirelessly to bring Davis back to his family.”
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