An American woman who vanished during a hike on South Africa’s Table Mountain, Brook Cheuvront, has been found dead, according to officials.
Cheuvront, a 20-year-old student from North Carolina, had been in Cape Town for an internship at a local NGO.
Her disappearance was reported on Saturday after her tracking app, which she was using while hiking alone, stopped updating, and she became unreachable.
Police confirmed that her body was discovered the next day in the rugged terrain near Devil’s Peak, a well-known part of the Table Mountain range.
According to reports from South African National Parks, which oversees Table Mountain and other national parks, Cheuvront had left her accommodation at noon to hike up the mountain.
When her friends noticed a lack of activity on her tracking app and failed to contact her via phone, they immediately alerted the authorities.
A rapid search was launched by park rangers and wilderness search-and-rescue teams, but efforts were suspended late Saturday night due to difficult conditions.
The search resumed the following morning with the assistance of a helicopter, which ultimately led to the discovery of her body on Devil’s Peak.
“The circumstances around the hiker’s death are still being investigated,” SANParks stated.
An autopsy is set to be conducted to ascertain the cause of death. The park authorities emphasized that they are looking into the incident thoroughly.
In a Facebook post, Cheuvront’s father, Steve, expressed the family’s profound grief, writing, “God help me and us.”
Cheuvront had been studying at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was engaged in a meaningful internship with a non-governmental organization in South Africa.
Despite reassurances from South African officials that crime is not an issue in Table Mountain National Park, they have advised against hiking alone and have reiterated the importance of safety precautions for visitors.
