27-year-old U.S. hiker found dead in Spain nearly month after going missing: Authorities
Guilford Cole Henderson, 27, appeared to have fallen about 650 feet down a mountain in Spain's remote Ordesa y Monte Pardido National Park in the Pyrenees mountains, according to both digital newspaper El Español and the newspaper El Diario De Huesca.
Authorities are transporting the recovered body to a forensic medicine institute to "confirm his identity," El Español reported.
The search for the Rhodes College alumnus has drawn international media attention since his friends posted pleas for help on social media in finding him. Several of his friends had hiked with him in Spain's remote Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park. According to friends on Facebook, Henderson decided to hike alone after putting his cell phone on airplane mode to save battery power.
The friends said they became concerned when Henderson didn't show for a June 14 flight from Spain to Amsterdam, where Henderson was living.
Parents informed about body discovery
Spanish authorities have told Henderson's parents, Trevania and John Henderson, that they believe they've recovered their son's body, according to loved ones in Nashville who spoke to The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network.
Henderson's parents, who now live in New England, traveled to Spain for at least a week to help with daily search efforts. His mother, who grew up in Nashville, still has connections to the area and visits Tennessee often, loved ones said.
The US Embassy in Spain and the Spanish Civil Guard both declined to comment in an email to The Tennessean, requesting further information.
Who was Cole Henderson?
Henderson was a 27-year-old who attended high school in Delaware and graduated from Rhodes College in Memphis in 2020 with honors with a degree in computer science.
He is the grandson of the late Guilford Dudley Jr., who founded Nashville's annual white-tie gala, known as the Swan Ball, and the former US Ambassador to Denmark under the Nixon administration, according to The Tennessean.
His former employers include software companies in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and San Francisco, as shown on his social media profiles. According to his LinkedIn profile, he was living in Amsterdam while working as an engineer for the software company Dexter Energy.
A self-described avid packer, social media posts show that he has traveled across the world, from skiing in Breckenridge, Colorado, to hiking in South Dakota's Badlands National Park, and from volunteering in Costa Rica to trekking along the famed Tour du Mont Blanc through Switzerland, Italy and France.
"Cole is an experienced traveler, a kind and curious soul, and someone who means the world to me," friend Eric Simon said in a July 15 Facebook post asking for help finding Henderson.
Where was Cole Henderson hiking?
Henderson was set to hike through the Ordesa Valley in the Pyrenees Mountains to a mountain hut known as Refugio de Pineta.
He parked his car in the Spanish village of Torla and his friends believed he was going to catch a ride back to his vehicle. Friends also said he planned on camping while in the Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park, located in the mountains on the border between northern Spain and France.
Officials do not know how long Henderson planned on hiking or whether he would attempt any of the peaks along the way.
On July 10, hikers reported rain and severe thunder, the day after Henderson began his hike. They also mentioned that there was limited to no cell service on the route Henderson was possibly using.
Contributing: Amanda Lee Myers, USA TODAY
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