College Student, 19, Found Dead on Colorado National Park Cliff Nearly a Week After He Went Missing

Dallas Roberts, a college student who went missing in Colorado’s Gunnison National Park, has been found dead. 

“It’s an absolute tragedy,” Montrose County Sheriff Gene Lillard told McClatchy News in a phone interview published on Tuesday, Nov. 5.

The Montrose County Sheriff's Office first reported Roberts was missing in a Facebook post shared on Oct. 30. According to the department, the 19-year-old was last seen on Oct. 28 in "the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park area."

The search for Roberts ended after his body was discovered inside the national park, the Montrose County Sheriff’s Office confirmed on Nov. 2, reports KKCO. 

Park rangers found his vehicle "crashed 150 feet off the road and down a hill" in the park on Oct. 28, but his body was not found, KKCO adds. Roberts’ vehicle was reportedly traveling at a high rate of speed before veering off the road.

“The family is quite concerned as well. They’ve been trying to do searches on their own too. They’ve been very cooperative in trying to find Mr. Roberts,” Lillard said before Roberts' remains were found, the Montrose Daily Press reported. 

“We’re gravely concerned because of the extremely cold weather,” Lillard added at the time.

Grand Junction’s Daily Sentinel previously reported that park rangers could not immediately respond after Roberts' crash because they were on the North Rim of Gunnison at the time.

Lillard said a cadaver dog was brought in by the Montrose County Sheriff’s Office and Mesa County Sheriff’s Office to assist with the search, reports McClatchy News. National Park Service officials found a sweater, later identified by Roberts' family as his, about half a mile from the wreck days later.

Lillard said drone footage assisted emergency rescue crews in locating his body lying in bushes about 200 feet beneath a bench midway down the granite cliffside.

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Roberts was a student at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction and formerly lived in Montrose, where he still has family, reports the Daily Sentinel.

Roberts’ official cause of death has not yet been determined.

The Black Canyon area of Gunnison National Park sits on approximately 31,000 acres and is known for its exceptionally rugged, remote terrain, as well as being home to the Gunnison River.