VIDEO: UTAH Woman Dies Grand Canyon Death Goes Viral On Twitter, Reddit and Youtube

VIDEO: UTAH Woman Dies Grand Canyon Death Goes Viral On Twitter, Reddit, and Youtube Officials confirmed Tuesday that a longtime Utah government worker died Monday evening after falling 20 feet in the Grand Canyon while on a boating trip along the Colorado River.

Margaret ‘Meg’ Osswald of Salt Lake City, the deputy director of the Utah Division of Water Quality, was pronounced dead by Arizona safety officials at around 8:30 p.m. Monday after falling more than 20 feet during a hike near the 1,450-mile-long river.

UTAH Woman Dies Grand Canyon

Oswald, 34, had worked for the Utah Attorney General’s Office, the Utah Department of Natural Resources, and the US Department of Justice in the previous ten years when she died on the sixth day of a multi-day private river excursion.

Officials responded by helicopter to a report of an unconscious river trip participant near Ledges Camp, a spot with stair-stepping slabs of rock, at river mile 152.

Last Wednesday, authorities said Osswald walked into the canyon to meet members of the river trip at Phantom Ranch, a popular lodge 60 miles downriver near the canyon’s bottom.

The victim was identified as Oswald by the National Park Service on Tuesday.

 

UTAH Woman Dies Grand Canyon Death Video

The Utah Division of Water Quality issued a statement on Tuesday saying, “We are extremely grieved by this loss.” ‘At this terrible moment, our thoughts and prayers are with her loved ones.’

The water quality division also confirmed that Osswald was recently promoted to assistant director, as her LinkedIn page indicates.

Officials with the National Park Service reported that before crew members arrived, campers attempted CPR but were unsuccessful.

The state National Park Service and the Coconino County Medical Examiner’s Office are now conducting investigations on the incident. Both parties have refused to provide any additional details about the incident.

Osswald graduated from the University of Utah School of Law in 2016 and passed the bar, according to the Utah State Bar.

She worked for seven years in the environment and natural resources sections of the Utah Attorney General’s Office before being elevated to her current position in the state’s water quality service.

Osswald formerly worked as a forestry technician for the Utah Department of Natural Resources and as a law clerk for the United States Department of Justice.

The event occurred just 11 days after another woman, Mary Kelley, 68, died after sliding out of her raft and into the roaring river while on a private boating tour in the Grand Canyon.

A Grand Canyon official said Tuesday that four people have died so far this year in the huge national park.

Osswald’s death is still being investigated by the National Park Service and the Coconino County Medical Examiner.