Grand Canyon Firefighters stumbled across a backpack on July 25 while prepping a containment line amid fighting the Dragon Fire in Arizona. When they opened it, they found identification of 36-year-old missing Boise man, David Alford, inside.
Alford is now 44 years old, but has not been seen since 2014, eight years ago. According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NAMUS), he was last seen hitchhiking on Aug. 25, 2014 near the interstate, holding a cardboard sign that said "Arizona" on one side and "Utah" on the other side.
Joelle Baird of the National Parks Service told KTVB on Monday that 150 wildfire personnel were assigned to manage the Dragon Fire. One crew was prepping the line around the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and stumbled onto the weathered backpack.