Woman in Grand Canyon Missing; Kaitlin Kenney 'With the Angels,' Says Mom (VIDEO)
A woman in the Grand Canyon has been missing since Friday, and now, the woman's mother fears she may be dead. The search for Kaitlin Kenney of Englewood, Colo. will now be scaled back in anticipation of her body surfacing, authorities stated.
The woman's trip to the Grand Canyon's Tapeats Creek seemed to be going well at first- Kenney was river rafting along with her friends, who had experience with the potentially dangerous activity- and eventually settled down to camp for the night. In the morning, though, her friends woke up and found the 21-year-old missing.
Days after no answers or clues to Kenney's whereabouts, her mother revealed that she believed Kaitlin is dead.
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"We believe that she's probably fallen into the river, and we're just waiting for word when someone finds her," Linnea Kenney, the mother of the missing woman, told the Associated Press. The grieving mother also documented the pain of the sudden loss via social media websites.
"Please pray for our family. Our sweet Kaitlin is with the angels," Linnea Kenney posted on Facebook Monday. "She was our balloon let loose in a room and lived life to its fullest, always with a smile. We were blessed to have her in our lives."
Authorities seem to be following suit by scaling back their investigation. Although the search will continue, it will be in a "limited mode in which rangers and pilots will continue to search for clues when in the area," Shannon Marcak, a park spokeswoman, told The New York Daily News.
Investigators also exhausted all leads, making sure that no foul play was involved with Kenney's disappearance.
"They did a thorough investigation and talked to all the people to try to get any clues, and of course to make sure there was no foul play," Linnea Kenney explained. "No doubt in my mind there was no foul play. She was happy and laughing, and that's kind of how everyone remembers her little soul."
Kaitlin Kenney was wearing a tan knee-length coat, hiking boots, tan pants, a grey long sleeve shirt, a multi-colored scarf and a black knit cap when she went missing. She is 5'5" and 125 pounds.
