NEW HAMPSHIRE, USA — The body of a man from Massachusetts who was last seen in mid-April has been recovered after hikers in New Hampshire discovered gear that belonged to him, giving search crews the clues they needed to find his body.
On April 28, officials with New Hampshire Fish and Game reportedly received a tip about a possible missing person whose vehicle was parked at a lot in Carroll, New Hampshire, the agency said in a news release issued April 30.
A law enforcement officer with the U.S. Forest Service conducted an investigation and was able to confirm the vehicle at the Crawford Path parking lot belonged to 65-year-old William Donovan of Cambridge, Massachusetts. The officer also learned Donovan had not been seen for about two weeks before the vehicle was found.
Donovan was believed to be an avid hiker, but investigators apparently found hiking gear left behind in the vehicle that they said would have been "beneficial if he was planning a hike in the White Mountains," which had not yet been determined.
Conservation officers and a volunteer drone team began searching the area for Donovan or for clues they hoped could help lead them to his whereabouts but were limited by weather conditions.
The Cambridge Police Department conducted a welfare check at his apartment and found a handwritten note that apparently suggested he may have been planning to hike Mt. Jefferson and Mt. Adams. Investigators also speculated Donovan arrived at the parking lot in New Hampshire on or around April 16.
Conservation officers conducted a more extensive search several days later, on May 3, with aid from several agencies and volunteers, but there were still no signs of Donovan.
The following weekend, hikers in the Dry River area found gear and a jacket that investigators believed may have belonged to Donovan, allowing them to narrow their search area.
On Monday, a search team was finally able to locate Donovan's body about 400 feet upstream from where the hikers found the jacket and about 2.5 miles from Route 302.
Crews spent the next several hours working to remove his body from the river, and additional support was called in, according to a news release. Donovan had become pinned under a large boulder, and the freezing temperatures of the water made it difficult for rescue and recovery crews to work.
"It is not known what brought Donovan into the Dry River Wilderness," New Hampshire Fish and Game said Tuesday in a news release. "It is also unknown how he entered the water, but it appears he was somehow forced from the ridge by high winds or other adverse weather conditions between Mt. Monroe and Mt. Eisenhower."
Donovan's body was brought to the New Hampshire medical examiner's office for an autopsy.
