Park officials are puzzled over report
Tyler Tompkins' first day on the job for the Yosemite Fund was on Friday, May 28. He reportedly went out for a hike after work and fell to his death between Lower Yosemite Falls and Camp 4 in Yosemite National Park. Tompkins hadn't been seen since he left work that afternoon, according to Park officials. Further details about the accident are under investigation, but Park officials are enraged at how they learned of the incident.
Late Monday afternoon, around 6:30 p.m., Park emergency dispatch received a telephone call reporting the body. What Park officials learned later has them straining to understand the circumstances surrounding that report. According to Scott Gediman, director of media relations for the National Park Service
NPS) in Yosemite, a couple from Berkeley actually came upon
body earlier that morning, around 10:30 a.m., but decided to continue their hike and didn't notify authorities until they returned to their parking lot almost eight hours later. The couple, a 55-year-old male and a 24-year-old female, were not named by Park officials since no charges are pending.
Tompkins, a 24-year old student at California State University, Stanislaus in Turlock, is from Ventura.
Gediman said the corpse had sustained damage from predators, "which of course effects the investigation," due to the length of time before the body was reported.
Park authorities researched any potential charges that could be lodged against the couple regarding their actions, but determined that no charges would be forthcoming. Tompkins’ family members arrived in the Park last Thursday, and the couple that simply walked past the deceased young man has since left the Park.
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The lack of common sense and
I just wanted to say that I
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