{"id":101362,"date":"2018-02-13T10:27:00","date_gmt":"2018-02-13T17:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/body-found-near-mcphee-reservoir-is-identified\/"},"modified":"2018-02-13T10:27:00","modified_gmt":"2018-02-13T17:27:00","slug":"body-found-near-mcphee-reservoir-is-identified","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/body-found-near-mcphee-reservoir-is-identified\/","title":{"rendered":"Body found near McPhee Reservoir is identified"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Erick
Erick Hurley has been missing since March. His body was found Friday in the Sage Hen area of the San Juan National Forest.<\/span>Courtesy photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A body discovered Friday in the Sage Hen area has been identified as Erick Hurley, 31, who has been missing since March, reports Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin.<\/p>\n

Two locals searching for antlers found Hurley\u2019s remains and his backpack on a remote sagebrush plain north of McPhee Reservoir and Road X. The cause of death was ruled a suicide from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Nowlin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis disappearance has been a real mystery. It\u2019s heartbreaking,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On March 18, Hurley was reported missing and an extensive search was conducted near his parents home on Road P where he had been staying. After several days of searching the fields and draws in the Trail Canyon area, no sign of him could be found. A Dolores K-9 Search and Rescue dog also combed the area but had no hits.<\/p>\n

Hurley\u2019s mother, Carol Hurley, said she last heard from Erick on March 17. She said at the time that there was no indication that he planned to leave town or that anything was wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not like him,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re very close, and we\u2019ve always kept in close touch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interviews with friends, relatives and neighbors yielded no clues to his whereabouts. His truck and possessions were left at his parents house, leading deputies to believe he left on foot or was picked up by somebody. No foul play was suspected.<\/p>\n

\u201cMissing person cases are so difficult because there is always the hope that he will come home,\u201d Nowlin said.<\/p>\n

Hurley had been working in the oil fields in South Dakota, and had recently returned to Montezuma County, Nowlin said. Evidence suggests he likely passed away soon after he was reported missing, Nowlin said.<\/p>\n

Regarding the antler hunting by the locals who found Hurley, it is allowed and no permit is required in Colorado. In January, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission passed a new seasonal closure on shed antler and horn collection on all public lands west of I-25 from Jan. 1 to April 30th to reduce impacts on wintering big game. However, this first year the closure does not take effect until March 2.<\/p>\n

jmimiaga@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

has been missing since March<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":101363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[255,44,280,1130,60,955],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-101362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-death-and-dying","tag-dolores","tag-mcphee-reservoir","tag-missing-person","tag-montezuma-county","tag-suicide"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101362"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=101362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}