Henderson hiker reported missing found safe

The search for a 53-year-old Henderson hiker who was missing for about nine days had started looking more like a recovery mission than a rescue, said a spokesman for the volunteer Red Rock Search and Rescue group.

That is why a phone call Friday informing them that Kevin Landis was alive and in good health was a “win,” the group’s commander David Cummings said.

The phone call came from Techatticup Gold Mine and General Store, on state Route 165, about 30 miles southeast from where the hiker was reported missing, Cummings said. The group believes that he walked between 45 to 50 miles.

Landis told rescuers that he had passed out for at least two days and drank water treated with iodine pills from the Colorado River, Cummings said. He told them that his yells to boaters were not heard.

Landis was reported missing by a co-worker who told police the man was last seen in Henderson on April 1.

Henderson police spokeswoman Michelle French said Landis was found about 9 a.m. Friday at Nelson’s Landing, where he made a phone call asking for someone to pick him up.

“As we approach the general store there stands the thin man with a grey beard, drinking a bottle of water,” Cummings wrote on the rescue team’s Facebook account.

Landis was hospitalized at University Medical Center and was being checked for dehydration.

“Kevin lives to tell a wild story that we still want to learn more about and try to document his actual line of travel,” Cummings said.

Review-Journal writer Ricardo Torres contributed to this report.

Contact reporter Cassandra Taloma at ctaloma@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Find her on Twitter: @CassandraTaloma