PORTLAND, Ore., Nov. 13, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — Jon Schmidt, a member of the St. George band The Piano Guys, has announced on Facebook that the remains found in Oregon Friday have been positively identified as those of his missing daughter, Annie.
Schmidt added the cause of her death was determined accidental.
The body was found with items belonging to 21-year-old Annie, an avid hiker who went missing Oct. 16 while hiking in the Columbia Gorge.
You have lived this trial with us and we pray that this may bring a greater level of resolution and peace for all of us, he said in the post. Schmidt said more information about funeral arrangements would be forthcoming.
The name of the Facebook group, which has 13,469 members, was also changed from Find Annie Schmidt to Remembering Annie Schmidt.
Today the dog teams found human remains at the bottom of a cliff in the area below Munra Point. The area is so far off trail and dense with vegetation that it required SAR to pretty much crawl uphill to get there.
Conclusive identification of the remains is impossible. The medical examiner will have conclusive identity verification by Monday or Tuesday. There is comfort in knowing from the circumstances that there would have been no suffering.
We can positively identify the clothing and personal items found at the site as belonging to Annie.
Schmidt had called on his followers, who include music lovers, members of his faith, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and other supporters to fast and pray in hopes Annie could be found.
Schmidt and his wife, Michelle, received messages of hope, faith and support from around the world.
We wanted each and every one of you who are special beyond words to us to hear it first.
There is no way to thank our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ for the support we have felt through you. You have searched with us, prayed with us, hoped with us, fasted with us, supported us and sacrificed for us. We thank you from the very bottom of our hearts!!!!
Much much love!
The Schmidts
Sheriff’s departments and search and rescue teams from multiple counties in Oregon called off the official search for Annie on Sunday, Oct. 23.
But Annie’s family and its supporters continued to search the Bonneville Dam area of the Columbia River Gorge, where her car was found, and where she had planned an upcoming hiking trip with her mother.
Annie, an experienced hiker and a Utah resident who had gone to Oregon for the summer, was last heard from on Oct. 16, when she posted to social media. On Oct. 19, mother Michelle Schmidt flew in for a camping trip the two had been planning for weeks. When she arrived at her daughter’s apartment, Annie’s roommate said she assumed mother and daughter already had left as she had not seen Annie for three days.
this instruction says exactly why she parked in the location she did and why she fell on such a tough rock climb of a trail.
It’s more of a hand-hold rock scramble, but the route is doable by anyone who doesn’t have a fear of heights and is nimble afoot.
Munra Point tops out at 1,740 feet in elevation overlooking Bonneville Dam. The crown of the point is a moss-covered basalt ridge, very narrow and exposed. Slip one way and you’ll slide 300 feet. Slip the other way and it’s 500 feet. So it’s best not to slip at all.
And, also, for heaven’s sake, watch out for the poison oak that is beginning to grow profusely on the lower part of the route.
To hike Munra Point, drive to the Bonneville Dam exit No. 40 on Interstate 84. Park at the bottom of the exit, or find a spot within the dam complex, the Tooth Rock trailhead or the small parking lot for Wahclella Falls.
From the Wahclella Falls trailhead, don’t go toward the falls, rather hike across the historic highway bridge over Tanner Creek, then head into the woods on the well-marked Gorge Trail 400. Walk west 1.3 miles and watch for an unsigned path leading south into the forest. A long pink surveyors ribbon foretold of it last Sunday, about 100 feet before the path created by users left the Gorge Trail.
Follow the path uphill to the southeast. There will be a couple of other paths and lots of braids in the trail, but just keep going up to the southeast on the obvious corridor created by users.
The climb after leaving the Gorge Trail is 1,600 feet in 0.9 of a mile, which makes it very steep. This is a rock scramble, not a manicured trail hike.
The full length is 2.2 miles one way, or about 2 to 2.5 hours walking time up. Don’t do the hike in bad weather because the columnar basalt embedded in the path will be slippery.
Godspeed to such a beautiful young lady.
CO