The state medical examiner is waiting for dental records before examining remains thought to be those of Dr. Jake Gradwohl, who has been missing since he went hiking Oct. 14.
A hiker found the body of a man with a green medical scrub shirt, jeans and a jacket Monday in Mill B Fork of Big Cottonwood Canyon, one canyon west of Broad's Fork, where the search for Gradwohl was concentrated last year after the third-year resident physician at University Hospital failed to return from a hiking trip.Salt Lake County sheriff's deputies located Gradwohl's car at a nearby trail head last fall but abandoned the search after finding no clues as to the doctor's whereabouts.
Searchers were flown in by helicopter at about 7 p.m. to recover the body after the hiker reported finding it earlier in the day. The body was recovered at the bottom of a 75-foot slope and might have gotten there after falling "a great distance," said Salt Lake County Sheriff's Lt. Gil Howard. "All indications are that he fell."
No identification was found with the body but officials highly suspect the remains are Gradwohl's as no one else has been reported missing in that area, Howard said. "Nothing was found at the scene that gives us any reason to believe that it isn't (Gradwohl)," Howard said, adding that the man's family has been notified of the recovery.
Gradwohl, a Denver resident who had been in Salt Lake about 21/2 years, was 28 when he was reported missing. A memorial service was held for him in Salt Lake City June 8.