A teenage girl died after losing her footing while on a hiking trail in Kane Creek Canyon, Utah. She fell 30 feet to the ground, authorities said.
Seventeen-year-old Zoey McKinney was with her friends as they were hiking on a trail near Kane Creek in Moab on Friday, February 10, when the tragedy struck.
The teenager got to a steep area on the Moab Rim trail and slipped. She did not have any safety equipment when she fell off the ledge.
The Moab City Police Department said they received a 911 call around 4:10 pm about a girl who had fallen off a hiking trail in the area. Responding officers struggled to get her out because she had fallen far from the trail, and the area was deep with several sharp cliffs.
The friends who called for help tried to reach her before the police arrived, but there was no safe way to get to her.
The police sought help from various other agencies in the region, and using a rope and harnesses, an officer was able to reach McKinney. Unfortunately, she was lifeless when the officer got to her and she was pronounced dead at the scene.
Moab Police Assistant Chief Lex Bell said he knew the victim and that the entire community was devastated by the news of her death. He said the teen was well known and called the accident “unbelievably tragic.”
McKinney, a student at the Grand County School, was reportedly set to receive an award that evening during the varsity basketball game’s halftime. Chief Bell said the timing of the death was even more tragic considering the award she would have received that night.
McKinney’s friends described her as a cheerleader with a big heart and said she was a loving friend.
