National Park Service: No more searches planned for missing hiker

The case is still open, but the National Park Service is not planning any more coordinated searches for a Henderson woman who may have gone missing while hiking this month.

“The family has filed a missing person report with the National Park Service,” park service spokeswoman Christie Vanover wrote in an email Monday, indicating the investigation was ongoing. “There are no plans for another coordinated search of the area, at this time, beyond routine patrols.”

The Lake Mead National Recreation Area dispatch center received a call at 3:31 p.m. June 5 reporting that a body had been found about 150 yards from the Colorado River near the Arizona Hot Spring.

A caller indicated 62-year-old James Edward Johnson Jr. and a woman — identified Friday as 35-year-old Christina Diane Montes — left to hike the trail on June 3. They did not return.

Rangers from the National Park Service and Arizona Department of Public Safety searched by air for nearly three hours. But when rangers found Johnson’s body, they did not find a woman or any evidence that she had accompanied him down the trail.

About 20 rangers and volunteers conducted another search Saturday after friends and family said she was supposed to go on the hike and was still missing, Vanover said. The National Park Service, Arizona Department of Public Safety and Mohave County Search and Rescue searched for seven hours by land and air. They searched 85 percent to 90 percent of the area, including places where people tend to get lost.

“There was nothing of hers at the trailhead and nothing near where his body was found,” Vanover wrote. “Based on that, we have encouraged the family to file a missing person report with city and county officials, as well.”