Missing hiker Ric DeVan is found dead

Earlier today, San Diego's Channel 6 News announced a sad ending to the long search for Ric DeVan, the 44-year-old San Diego hiker who went missing in Inyo County over the Fourth of July weekend. Here's an excerpt:

A volunteer searcher, a hiking guide from Los Angeles, found DeVan's body today several hundred feet below where his backpack was found late Tuesday in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

DeVan's father, Ric DeVan Sr.,  tells San Diego 6 News it appears the ground gave way under him as he walked along a remote area known as Mountain 12689 near Bishop Pass and east of Mt. Goode, where DeVan had signed a registry.

Efforts to recover DeVan's body are being delayed by bad weather.  He was found at about 12,000 feet elevation.  His widow, Viki DeVan, is near the recovery site and hopes to have his body taken to Bishop tomorrow and then back to San Diego.

DeVan's body has not been officially identified, according to Inyo County sheriff's spokeswoman Carma Roper.

But DeVan's father and friends have confirmed his death to San Diego 6 News...

Read the full text of the article here.

Family friend Leslie Slavens issued the following e-mail statement confirming the report and thanking all those who assisted in the search effort:

I am grateful to those of you who sent support and concern and help, thank you.

I am very saddened to say that Ric did not survive the hike. He was crushed by an avalanche and the only consoling fact of all this is that he died quickly and most likely painlessly and he was doing something he loved.

I am focusing on the family now, his wife and daughter who are going to need a lot of time.

Thank you all again and I am sorry to pass this news along.

—Liam Gowing