{"id":23282,"date":"2025-03-04T17:19:15","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T00:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/remains-of-man-missing-in-mesa-verde-since-start-of-2024-discovered-friday\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:32:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:32:52","slug":"remains-of-man-missing-in-mesa-verde-since-start-of-2024-discovered-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/remains-of-man-missing-in-mesa-verde-since-start-of-2024-discovered-friday\/","title":{"rendered":"Remains of man missing in Mesa Verde since start of 2024 discovered Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mesa
Mesa Verde National Park closed down multiple days this winter because of heavy snow. (Courtesy Mesa Verde National Park)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The remains of a man reported missing<\/a> in Mesa Verde National Park on Jan. 15, 2024, were found Friday, according to information provided by the park on Monday.<\/p>\n

Thomas Irwin, 73, of Indianapolis, was last seen in Mesa Verde National Park on Petroglyph Point Trail about 1 p.m. The next day, his family contacted the park, launching an \u201cextensive\u201d 10-day search and rescue operation. His vehicle was located inside the park and his phone was found and turned into park services.<\/p>\n

\"Thomas
Thomas Irwin.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Despite search and rescue efforts, Irwin was not found. A search continued through the year, ultimately leading to the discovery of his remains, according to park officials.<\/p>\n

Irwin was found through the use of a \u201chuman remains detection canine\u201d and was found within the original search area \u201cduring an off-trail grid search.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe sincerely appreciate and recognize the dedication of the Mesa Verde Resource and Visitor Protection Team and other park staff who continued the search for Mr. Irwin,\u201d said park Superintendent Kayci Cook. \u201cWe are glad this provides some closure for his family.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to a press release from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation around the time Irwin went missing, he suffered from a cognitive impairment that could reportedly cause him to \u201cbe easily confused.\u201d The condition required medication, which the release shared he may not have had at the time he went missing.<\/p>\n

Montezuma County Search and Rescue, with the help of K-9 Search and Rescue from Dolores, also aided in the search at the time Irwin went missing.<\/p>\n

During the initial search period, Mesa Verde National Park Chief of Interpretation and Visitor Services Kristy Sholly said in a news release that teams were looking for Irwin \u201call over the park.\u201d Sholly added that Irwin was thought to have completed the hike.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had lots of air efforts by fixed wing, helicopter and we brought in a specialized dog team,\u201d she said during the search. \u201cThere just haven\u2019t been a lot of leads.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

man\u2019s vehicle and phone were found in the park at the time he went missing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23283,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,28,173,60,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-mesa-verde-national-park","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23282","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=23282"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78051,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23282\/revisions\/78051"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23282"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}