Utah Hiker Rescued After Three Weeks in Desert

A view of the desert in Moab, Utah. (Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

Rescuers have found a hiker who was lost for three weeks out in the desert in Utah, according to reports.

“After three weeks, frankly there was little hope of finding him alive,” Shane Oldfield, Utah Highway Patrol helicopter pilot, told ABC-4.

The hiker, William LaFever, suffers from autism and began hiking from Boulder, Utah, to Lake Powell in June when he got lost.

“It is some of the most rugged, unforgiving terrain you will find anywhere on Earth—jagged cliffs, stone ledges, sandstone, sagebrush, juniper,” Garfield County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Becki Bronson told the network.

Oldfield told Fox-13 that LaFever survived by eating roots, plants, a frog, and a fish that he caught.

“He told us he’d eaten a frog the day before,” Oldfield was quoted as saying. “It didn’t sit too well on his stomach, so he didn’t want to do that again. He’d been eating some roots and some plants … he thought were edible.”

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.