William LaFever – 3 weeks in the desert

Time stranded: 3 weeks

Distance traveled: >100 miles

Terrain types: Desert

Deaths: 0

Situation ended: Found by a search helicopter

Location: Utah

William LaFever was an ordinary 28-year-old guy who enjoyed hiking, which is why he decided to walk the 90 miles he needed to travel. He was heading to Page in Arizona from Boulder in Utah to collect something from his father, and after not giving a time he’d arrive his family just expected him to take public transport when he was ready.

William had other plans though, and decided to walk the 90-mile distance along the Escalante River with his dog, so he packed some food and headed out with his dog.

It wasn’t long before things started to turn bad, as the young man was autistic it seemed he miscalculated his supplies and ran out of dog food very quickly, shortly after which the dog ran off.

He’d run out of food himself and thought he was much closer to his destination than he was so he abandoned his backpack due to the weight and continued to head down the river. He stayed next to the banks the whole time so water wasn’t a problem, but he had to resort to catching frogs for food, as well as eating the occasional edible-looking plant.

Since he didn’t give a time for his arrival and he didn’t tell anyone he was walking there, it wasn’t until 2 weeks after he left that his sister reported him as missing, with no one having any idea as to where.

The local authorities were notified that he was missing in the area and it just so happened that the sheriff had recently finished a course in finding missing people with autism, where he learned they like to remain close to water. So he organized a helicopter to search the length of the river between his home and his destination, and since they had no information to go at this point this was a complete shot in the dark.

(The Escalante River)

Fortunately, the search helicopter quickly found him, as he was lying down in the middle of the river, something he said he did often during the day to remain cool. When he was found he had only the strength to wave to the crew and couldn’t stand, he was taken straight to the hospital where he was treated and made a full recovery.

He was facing near starvation when he was found and the sheriff’s department stated that if he had been found just 24 hours later it would have been too late.