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Difficult Search for Missing Utah Hikers

ZION NATIONAL PARK, Utah (AP) — Zion National Park rangers regularly warn hikers that flash flooding during monsoon season can turn southern Utah's beautiful canyons into deadly channels of fast-moving water and debris. But dozens of adventure-seekers go anyway, eager to rappel down the colorful, undulating sandstone walls.

That decision proved deadly for one group of hikers who got trapped by floodwaters in a popular "slot" canyon as narrow as a window in some spots and several hundred feet deep.

Six have turned up dead. One is still missing.

A sudden deluge of rain fueled the flood Monday evening, which "went from a trickle to a wall" of water, park ranger Therese Picard said. Zion officials said the group got a permit to hike Keyhole Canyon early that morning — hours before a flash flood warning prompted park officials to close the canyons. By that time, park officials say there was no way to reach them in time to alert them to the violent floodwaters coming their way.

"Ninety percent of Zion is wilderness," Picard said. "It is not possible to contact everyone."

Six of the hikers were from California and one from Nevada. All were in their 40s and 50s.

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In this aerial photo searchers continue looking for 6-year-old Tyson Lucas Black in Zion National Pa …

Another hiker who had seen the group reported them overdue about 5:30 p.m. Monday, right after a fierce storm that dumped more than a half-inch of rain in less than an hour.

Rangers who were also dealing with small landslides and other effects of the storm found the group's cars, but did not see any sign of them. With darkness falling and the canyon already filling with floodwaters, they decided it wasn't safe to send in rescue crews.

The search resumed the next morning. Though the canyon was still inaccessible, teams started following its course and started calling down to the missing hikers with no answer. The first body was found near the mouth of the canyon Tuesday afternoon, and a private canyoneering group came across the second an hour later.

The flood marks one of the deadliest weather-related disasters at a national park in recent history, park service officials said. It evoked memories of a 1997 incident near Page, Arizona, where 11 hikers died after a wall of water from a rainstorm miles upstream thundered through Lower Antelope Canyon, a narrow, twisting series of corkscrew-curved walls located on Navajo land.

The deadly events at Zion happened at the same time flash floods tore through a small community on the Utah-Arizona border just south of the park, leaving at least 12 people dead who were in two cars who were swept up Monday by swift water, mud and debris in a canyon.

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In this aerial photo community members visit the spot of the wrecked vehicles after a flash flood in …

Crews including the Utah national guard, a federal task force and local officials are searching a seven-mile length of Short Creek to try and find a boy who turned 6 last month. The last body recovered was found 6 1/2 miles from where the two cars, a van and an SUV carrying 16 people, were swept away.

Three children survived, including a boy who told Utah Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox that he escaped by cutting through an air bag, climbing out a window and jumping off the roof of the vehicle. Cox told The Associated Press that the boy was about 9 or 10 years old and lost his mother and several siblings, who were also in the cars.

Bodies recovered Tuesday were found as far as several miles away in the sister towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona — the home base of Warren Jeffs' polygamous sect.

Hildale Mayor Philip Barlow said the three women who died were sisters: Josephine Jessop, Naomi Jessop and Della Black. Josephine Jessop and Naomi Jessop were also sister wives, both married to Joseph N. Jessop. It's not uncommon in the polygamous sect for relatives to marry the same man.

The names of the children, ranging from 4 to 11 years old, were not disclosed.

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A member of a search and rescue team searches along the Virgin River Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2015, in Z …

At Zion National Park, 20 miles north of Hildale, the group of seven had arrived to climb, rappel and swim through a half-mile canyon route that takes from one to four hours to complete.

Hikers use climbing equipment to lower themselves into the canyon. There are more steep descents on the course, as far as 30 feet down sandstone walls. Some rappelling routes end in pools of water where canyoneers unhook their equipment and swim out. The canyon walls go as far as the eye can see, and it's deep enough to stay cool even in July, Picard said.

Zion spokeswoman Aly Baltrus said that some members of the group were new to canyoneering, but they took a class before they entered the canyon.

Keyhole Canyon is what canyoneers call a "rap and swim" canyon, full of a series of drops where hikers rappel down into pools of water, said Colorado-based canyoneering expert Steve Allen. It's considered an entry-level canyon for people who have some experience but are still new to the sport.

But when flash flooding starts, it's a different story, with narrow crevices filling like a bathtub.

"That little bit of rain can turn what was a very comfortable daylong excursion into a horror story, literally in a split-second," Allen said. "There's no escape routes."

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Associated Press writers Lindsay Whitehurst in Salt Lake City; Kimberly Pierceall in Hildale, Utah; Felicia Fonseca in Phoenix; and Michelle L. Price in Price, Utah, contributed to this story.

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — An appeals court halted the execution of an Oklahoma man with just hours to spare Wednesday after his attorneys said they had uncovered new evidence, including a fellow inmate's claim that he overheard another man convicted in the case admit he acted alone.

Richard Eugene Glossip was twice convicted of ordering the killing of Barry Van Treese, who owned the Oklahoma City motel where Glossip worked. Motel handyman Justin Sneed admitted robbing and beating Van Treese with a baseball bat, but said he did so only after Glossip promised to pay him $10,000.

Prosecutors alleged Glossip was afraid Van Treese was about to fire him for embezzling money and poorly managing the motel.

Glossip, 52, was scheduled to be executed at 3 p.m. Wednesday, but the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals agreed just before noon to reschedule the lethal injection for Sept. 30. Glossip's lawyers said they obtained a signed affidavit from another inmate, Michael Scott, who claims he heard Sneed say "he set Richard Glossip up, and that Richard Glossip didn't do anything."

His attorneys also argued that Glossip's trial attorneys didn't present enough evidence to discredit Sneed, who was sentenced to life in prison and testified against Glossip. They presented an affidavit from an admitted methamphetamine dealer who said he frequently saw Sneed use the drug and trade stolen items for it.

The court said it granted the last-minute request "in order for this court to give fair consideration" to Glossip's new claims.

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Robert Patton, director of the Oklahoma Department of Prisons, leaves the media center without takin …

Glossip attorney Don Knight said he was inside the prison speaking to Glossip when a prison official informed them the execution had been stayed.

"It took his breath away for a second," Knight said. "We were kind of doing a fist bump through the glass. He was really joyous, truly joyous. It was a wonderful moment."

Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt said the Van Treese family has waited "18 agonizing years for justice to be realized," but said he was confident the court wouldn't find any evidence to overturn the two juries that convicted Glossip and sentenced him to death.

Van Treese's brother, Ken Van Treese, also said the family had faith in the courts.

"We appreciate the efforts of all those who are conversant with the case and know the facts involved," he said in a statement.

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FILE - This undated file photo provided by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections shows death row in …

Barry Van Treese was found beaten to death in a room at the Best Budget Inn on Jan. 7, 1997. Van Treese was staying at the Oklahoma City motel while delivering paychecks and picking up large amounts of money for deposit.

Glossip was questioned by police, and a day later began selling his belongings and telling people he was leaving town, according to investigators. Police again detained him and found him with $1,200; court records show his net pay that week was about $430. Sneed was found with $1,700 after Van Treese's death.

Glossip's case garnered international attention after Hollywood actress Susan Sarandon, who played a nun in the movie "Dead Man Walking," took up his cause. The woman Sarandon portrayed in the movie, anti-death penalty advocate Sister Helen Prejean, has served as Glossip's spiritual adviser and frequently visited him in prison.

On Tuesday, Glossip maintained his innocence during a brief telephone interview with The Associated Press. He said he hoped his life would be spared, and that he remained optimistic.

"They'll never take that from me," Glossip told the AP. "I won't let it bring me down. If you've got to go out ... you don't want to be bitter and angry about it."

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Ericka Glossip-Hodge, left, daughter of Richard Glossip, and Billie Jo Ogden Boyiddle, right, Richar …

Glossip's daughter, Ericka Glossip-Hodge, said she and several relatives were on their way to the prison when told of Wednesday's court decision.

"We're really excited," Glossip-Hodge said. "We actually got off the road and pulled over."

Republican Gov. Mary Fallin, who has rejected calls to delay Glossip's execution, said her office would respect "whatever decision the court makes." She echoed Pruitt's sentiments, saying her thoughts and prayers were will the Van Treese family.

Glossip's new execution date is one week before the scheduled execution of Benjamin Cole. After the botched execution of inmate Clayton Lockett in April 2014, a state review committee recommended that at least a week pass between executions.

Had it not been halted, Glossip's execution would have been the first in Oklahoma since a sharply divided U.S. Supreme Court upheld the state's three-drug lethal injection formula in June.

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Associated Press writers Kelly P. Kissel and Tim Talley in Oklahoma City and Jill Bleed in Little Rock, Arkansas, contributed to this report.

Associated Press Videos
Raw: Strong Quake Shakes Chile Capital

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — A major earthquake just off the Chilean shore killed five people, forced 1 million to evacuate and shook the Earth so strongly the tremor was felt across South America. Several coastal towns were flooded from small tsunami waves set off by the quake.

The magnitude-8.3 quake that hit off northern Chile on Wednesday night lasted for three minutes, causing buildings to sway in the capital of Santiago and prompting authorities to issue a tsunami warning for the Andean nation's entire Pacific coast. People sought safety in the streets of inland cities, while others along the shore took to their cars to race to higher ground.

"Once again we must confront a powerful blow from nature," President Michelle Bachelet said in an address to the nation.

Five people died and one person was listed as missing, said Mahmud Aleuy, the Interior Ministry's deputy secretary. He added 1 million people were forced out of their homes and electrical power was cut off to 240,000 households.

Bachelet urged people evacuated from coastal areas to stay on high ground until authorities could fully evaluate the situation. Officials said schools would be closed in most of the country Thursday.

Numerous aftershocks, including one at magnitude-7 and four above 6, shook the region after the initial earthquake — the strongest tremor since a powerful quake and tsunami killed hundreds in 2010 and leveled part of the city of Concepcion in south-central Chile.

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People evacuate a mall in Santiago after a powerful earthquake, in Santiago, Chile, Wednesday, Sept. …

Tsunami advisories were in effect for Hawaii and parts of California. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center originally issued a tsunami watch for Hawaii but downgraded the alert to an advisory.

Although officials cautioned it was too early to know for sure, it appeared Wednesday's quake had a much smaller impact than the 2010 tremor. Chile's traditionally strong risk reduction measures and emergency planning have gotten better in the last five years.

"Earthquake impact is a little like real estate: what matters is location, location, location," said Susan Hough, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey. "But it is true that preparedness and risk reduction in Chile is ahead of that in much of the world, and that makes a difference."

The tremor was so strong that people in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on the other side of the continent, reported feeling it. People in Peru and Brazil also reported feeling the shakes. No injuries were reported outside of Chile.

Claudio Moreno was in a Santiago bar when the quake hit. The shaking was powerful, but more worrisome was how long it lasted, he said.

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Police patrol a debris strewn street in Valparaiso, Chile, after a tsunami, caused by an earthquake …

"We went out in the street when we felt it was going on too long," he said. "It was more than a minute."

Authorities said some adobe houses collapsed in the inland city of Illapel, 175 miles (280 kilometers) north of Santiago and 34 miles (55 kilometers) east of the quake's epicenter. Illapel mayor Denis Cortes told a local television station that a woman had been killed in the city but declined to give any details.

Electricity was knocked out, leaving the city in darkness. "We are very scared. Our city panicked," Cortes said.

A magnitude-8.8 quake and ensuing tsunami in south-central Chile in 2010 killed more than 500 people, destroyed 220,000 homes, and washed away docks, riverfronts and seaside resorts. That quake released so much energy it actually it shortened the Earth's day by a fraction of a second by changing the planet's rotation.

The quake had huge ramifications, both political and practical, prompting the Andean nation to improve its alert systems for both quakes and tsunamis.

While Wednesday's tremor was strong by any estimation, the 2010 quake was 5.6 times more powerful in terms of energy released, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Chile is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries because just off the coast the Nazca tectonic plate plunges beneath the South American plate, pushing the towering Andes cordillera to ever-higher altitudes. The strongest earthquake ever recorded on Earth happened in Chile — a magnitude-9.5 tremor in 1960 that killed more than 5,000 people.

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Associated Press writers Eva Vergara and Patricia Luna in Santiago, Debora Rey and Peter Prengaman in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this report.