MEXICO CITY: Searchers on Friday found the body of an American man who had been missing in the rugged mountains in central Mexico since going on a hike four days ago.

Carlos Mandujano, the civil defence coordinator for Morelos state, said a search team found the lifeless body of Hari Simran Singh Khalsa, 25. He was found in one of the narrow gorges or ravines that crisscross the rugged mountains in the colonial town of Tepoztlan, not far from where he was last seen in a picture of himself that he sent by cellphone.

“He has been found, but unfortunately, dead,” Mandujano said.

“We don’t know the cause of death yet; that will be determined by the autopsy”. Khalsa’s family and friends said in a statement later that he apparently died from a fall.

“He appears to have fallen while hiking and sustained a fatal injury to the head,” it said. The US Embassy in Mexico City also confirmed the death. It said it was offering consular support to Khalsa’s family and extended the US government’s condolences.

While helicopters and hundreds of police and rescue workers combed the craggy mountains and cliffs around Tepoztlan this week, it appears Khalsa never went very far. The body “was in the same wooded area, but the thing is that it is very rough terrain,” Mandujano said. The search began on Tuesday after Khalsa didn’t return from going on a hike in Tepoztlan, about an hour south of Mexico City, with only a T-shirt, shorts, and little food and water, said his wife, Ad Purkh Kaur.

She said from Tepoztlan that her husband was a yoga instructor born and raised in Brooklyn. The couple have been living in Leesburg, Virginia, but were planning to move back to Brooklyn at the end of the month.

Published in Dawn, January 4th, 2015

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