24-05-2025
'She loved hard': Family, friends reflect on woman's death while hiking
Hiking through the Arizona desert was among the many facets of Hannah Moody's life that she regularly chronicled on social media.
Hannah Moody, a 31-year-old Scottsdale resident, was found dead May 22 approximately 600 yards — just over a third of a mile — off-trail from a parking lot at the Sonoran Mountain Preserve. Those close to her think she died from heat exposure, and authorities do not suspect foul play.
Her Instagram and TikTok accounts were just one way she tried to impact the lives of all whose path she crossed, her older brother explained. Hannah's health-related postings were aimed at sharing "warmth and light with folks," Joel said.
"She was somebody who really enjoyed meeting people and didn't like remaining strangers with folks," he said, adding Hannah "really wanted to make sure not only that she met people, but that when she did that they felt loved."
And "if she loved you, she loved you hard," said Hannah's mother, Terri Moody, reflecting on her daughter's thoughtful gift-giving.
One Christmas, Hannah gifted her family matching hoodie-footie pajamas, which are adult-style onesies, her mother recalled with a light laugh. Terri, 66, remembered Hannah generously sending her money in 2014 to help fund a trip to visit archaeological and other sacred sites in Israel.
More to the story: 31-year-old Hannah Moody was found dead near a Scottsdale trail. What to know
A Northern California native, Hannah moved to Scottsdale from Charleston, South Carolina, about eight months ago. Hannah previously lived in Arizona and missed hiking the state, her mother said.
Terri and her husband, John, were in Sedona for a work conference about a week before their daughter's untimely death. The mother and daughter went on a hike and then made it to Scottsdale where they spent a day together.
"That's quite a gift," Terri said, reflecting on the 'very precious' time she spent with Hannah just days before her passing.
The youngest of three siblings, Hannah was a devoted and loving aunt, Joel said, to his son and daughter, as well as to their brother Ethan Moody's two sons.
Joel looked back on when his daughter, now 7, was about 18 months old and Hannah gave her a onesie that read, 'Your workout is my warmup,' matching a shirt Hannah wore herself. She often knelt down to connect with her nieces and nephews, locking eyes and engaging with them, regardless of whether they were old enough to speak.
Hannah had a natural ability to draw people in, said her friend Megan Pasquel. The 34-year-old Phoenix-area resident described their relationship as sisterly, a bond that began in 2018 when they met as members of a Gold's Gym in Venice, California, while Hannah was living in Marina Del Rey.
"She was the type of person that would go out of her way to make a stranger's day, whether it was complimenting them or buying (them) coffee. And just always having a smile on her face, always being very kind to anyone she met," Pasquel said.
To honor Hannah on her birthday, Pasquel and others are organizing a sunrise hike meetup at 5 a.m. May 31 at the McDowell Sonoran Conservancy's Gateway Trailhead, located at Thompson Peak Parkway and Windgate Ranch Road.
Hannah is at least the second hiker in Arizona this May believed to have died from heat-related causes. On May 21, the day she was last seen hiking at the Sonoran Mountain Preserve, temperatures at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport reached 102 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.
Noah Farabaugh, 33, of Mesa, died from a suspected heat stroke during a hike in the Superstition Mountains on May 11, according to his family. Just days later, 74-year-old Dennis Smith of Olympia, Washington, reportedly an experienced hiker, died near the end of a rim-to-rim trek in the Grand Canyon on May 15. A cause of death had not yet been confirmed a week after.
While Hannah's loved ones are heartbroken by her loss, they find comfort in knowing she had embraced what her brother Joel described as a renewed faith. At one point, Joel said, Hannah seemed to have drifted away from Christianity, but in recent years, she had reconnected with her beliefs.
When she returned to her faith, "she saw it not as something that was like an inheritance or that she was sort of bound to in the way that some people who are raised in the church might see it," Joel said. "She saw it as a gift, and so she she embraced it and was free to share about it" on social media.
Terri said she would often tell her daughter she was an "online missionary for Jesus."
Joel added that Hannah "would understand that people grieve her" but "she would also want people to rejoice at the fact that she's in a better place, and to look forward to seeing her on the other side."
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Family and friends share memories of hiker Hannah Moody
