A family of three is reportedly missing after traveling to the Grand Canyon during an extreme winter storm last week.
The Coconino County Sheriff’s Office in Flagstaff, Ariz., shared a missing persons flier featuring Taehee Kim, Junghee Kim and Jiyeon Lee on March 19. The sheriff’s office noted the group was last seen traveling from the Grand Canyon area to Las Vegas on March 13 and that they were driving in a 2024 white BMW rental car with California license plate number 9KHN768.
In an update, police clarified the ages of the three travelers: Taehee, 59, Junghee, 54, and Lee, 33. Sheriff's office spokesperson Jon Paxton told ABC News that Taehee and Junghee are sisters and Taehee is Lee's mom.
The women were supposed to fly home to South Korea out of San Francisco on March 17, but their family hadn't heard from them and became concerned when it was confirmed the group missed their flight, Paxton explained.
Grand Canyon National Park posted on March 14 that winter storms had caused "hazardous conditions" throughout the park the day before. On March 8, the park warned on Instagram that "a couple of storm systems are expected to impact the Grand Canyon region next week" and named the "potentially much stronger storm" to hit on March 13.
The missing persons flier also noted that the rental car’s GPS showed it had been traveling westbound on Interstate 40 at around 3:30 p.m. PT on March 13. Officials noted that pings on the group's cell phones indicated they were last traveling in the same area. Neither the rental car's GPS nor the women's phones have shown any activity since March 13.
"The big concern right now is ... a major accident had taken place on the interstate, very close to where that ping was located," Paxton told ABC News, referring to the ping given off by the rental car GPS and the group's phones.
Law enforcement said there was an accident involving 22 vehicles that occurred on I-40 around that time on March 13, but it's not clear whether the family or their rental car was involved in the crash. The Arizona Department of Public Safety said it was a "weather-related fatal collision" that resulted in two fatalities and 16 injured people who were taken to hospitals, although the victims' names have not been publicly released yet.
"It was our concern that because of the weather conditions on that day and that major accident, their GPS may have rerouted them," the sheriff's office told Arizona news outlet KSAZ-TV. "If you've ever traveled up in northern Arizona — when you get rerouted, sometimes GPS will reroute you out into a forest service road without knowing that weather conditions are harsh."
The Arizona-based National Weather Service reported on March 18 that more "gusty winds" and a "strong cold front" bringing rain and snow will continue to hit the area for the rest of this week.
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