The body of a Massachusetts hiker who'd been missing for nearly a month was found beneath a boulder in New Hampshire's White Mountains Tuesday, officials said.
William Neal Donovan, a 65-year-old avid hiker from Cambridge, was reported missing April 16. His car was located about two weeks later at the Crawford Path parking lot in Carroll.
This weekend, hikers found gear and a jacket believed to have belonged to Donovan were found in the Dry River, leading search-and-rescue crews to the area. They found the man's body upstream, lodged under a boulder about 2.5 miles from Route 302, according to New Hampshire Fish and Game.
With the help of dozens of volunteers, who hiked in specialist tools, the boulder was moved and Donovan's body freed, about eight hours after it was located, officials said.
Investigators don't know how Donovan ended up in the water or why he was in the Dry River Wildnerness, in the White Mountains' Presidential Range. Officials noted, "it appears he likely was somehow forced off the ridge, likely due to high winds or adverse weather, between Mt. Monroe and Mt. Eisenhower during his hike and ended up in very difficult and desolate terrain of the Dry River Wilderness."
The body was due to undergo an autopsy.
Officials have previously said that Cambridge police conducted a welfare check of his home and found a handwritten note that indicated he wanted to possibly hike Mt. Jefferson and Mt. Adams. Donovan lives alone and didn't leave an itinerary of what his plans were.
