A 55-year-old Austin man is dead after search and rescue teams responded to a 911 call and located him in the McKittrick Canyon area of Guadalupe Mountains National Park, according to the Culberson County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies say the man, identified as Mark Richard Walters, called 911 seeking assistance and provided GPS coordinates to authorities before crews found him with what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the head.
The Culberson County Sheriff’s Office announced that deputies are investigating the death of the Austin man in Guadalupe Mountains National Park, according to NewsWest9. Per a Facebook post cited by the outlet, Walters called 911 seeking assistance and gave authorities his GPS coordinates before search and rescue teams were deployed to the canyon. The sheriff’s office is investigating the incident as a suicide, though the case remains open and no official cause of death from a medical examiner has been reported.
A Grueling Search in Tough Terrain
McKittrick Canyon, where crews located Walters, is a restricted day-use area within the park with access gates that operate on set hours, running from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in winter and until 6 p.m. in summer, according to the National Park Service. The canyon’s trail network climbs more than 1,200 feet toward a landmark known as “The Notch” en route to McKittrick Ridge, a route the National Park Service has designated the “toughest hike in Texas.” That steep, isolated topography routinely complicates emergency response in the Guadalupe Mountains…