American woman who got lost hiking in central Taiwan is found dead after multi-day search

Woman’s body found just days after her guide died of hypothermia

Missing American hiker found dead on the Nenggao-Andongjun trail in central Taiwan (The Independent/ Datawrapper)

A missing American woman of Chinese ethnicity was found dead in central Taiwan by a rescue team on Tuesday following a multi-day search.

The 56-year-old woman, surnamed Yeh, was part of a six-person group that had planned a week-long hike over mountains in Nantou County.

The woman, a professor in Taiwan, began her travel on 18 April.

Due to heavy downpour, the American woman and her guide got separated from the rest of the group and had been traveling together on the Nenggao-Andongjun trail.

The Taiwanese guide was found dead on 21 April, the Hualien County Fire Department said. The guide was a man surnamed Chen, who died of hypothermia, authorities added.

Chen had contacted assistants saying he was suffering from hypothermia and the American hiker suffered from altitude sickness, Taiwan News reported.

Search and rescue operations for the missing woman suffered a setback due to poor weather conditions.

However, better weather on Tuesday allowed rescuers to access more areas, and the body of the American hiker was airlifted out of the mountains.

Three American women, the local guide, and his two assistants were members of the six-member group that began their hiking journey on the Nenggao Andongjun Trail in Nantou County.

After the woman and the guide got separated from the group, the two assistants led the other two American hikers back to Tianchi Lodge on Thursday afternoon while calling for help for the missing hikers.

Hualien County authorities dispatched two rescue teams after receiving the report but could not deploy a search aircraft because of bad weather. Last Friday one of the rescue teams found Chen, who was dead from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, the department said.