Teenage Girl Tragically Killed in Utah Hiking Accident

Zachary Stieber
6/19/2018
Updated:
6/19/2018

A 16-year-old girl died after falling 100 feet while hiking with a friend in Utah.

The girl was identified as Kaylee Marvin of Santaquin. She and a friend were hiking in the Santaquin Canyon on Monday when she fell down a waterfall.

“Obviously this is a huge loss. A beautiful young lady now has tragically passed away from an unfortunate accident,” Lt. Tom Hodgson with the Utah County Sheriff’s Office told KTSU.

Kaylee’s friend called authorities, who responded but found Kaylee died at the bottom of Pioneer Log Chute, a seasonal waterfall in the canyon.

“She took a misstep, she basically slipped while she was trying to navigate across a log,” said Hodgson. “With the water up there and the slick rocks the way they are, she just, unfortunately, didn’t put her feet in the right locations and slipped off the edge.”

Other hikers, including Kaylee’s friend, tried to perform CPR until emergency responders arrived but to no avail.

Kaylee’s father was hiking in the area as well and rushed to where his daughter had fallen when he heard of the fall.

The office said in a statement obtained by Desert News, that detectives are investigating “but at this point, there is nothing suspicious and the death appears to be a tragic accident.”

Utah County Sheriff’s Sgt. Spencer Cannon said that Kaylee’s family described her as “beautiful inside and out.”

“She was just herself. Like, wherever she was, she was always Kaylee and nobody else,” added friend Lindsey Jackson, whose cousin was the one hiking with Kaylee.

“She was so great, she wasn’t afraid to speak her mind, and she was brave, and she was kind, and she was so funny. She still is, up in heaven—loving horses, and camping and fishing.”

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