Overview
- Ashley Phillips, 30, disappeared while hiking near the Nauyaca waterfalls on June 3 during heavy storms that caused flooding and landslides.
- Volunteer searchers and official rescue teams conducted intermittent searches that had to pause because of dangerous weather and unstable terrain.
- The Costa Rican Red Cross recovered a body in water roughly 600 meters from landslide-damaged ground and officials later confirmed the remains were Phillips.
- Phillips’s family identified the body, announced the recovery on a GoFundMe page and has raised more than $20,000 to cover repatriation and celebration-of-life plans.
- Authorities have not released a cause of death and the Judicial Investigation Agency is probing the case while reports note the region’s sudden rain-driven surges and landslide risk during the rainy season.