Sheriff Says Rescued Hiker's Story Doesn't Add Up

There are several "discrepancies" in the circumstances surrounding the disappearance and recovery of a Zion National Park hiker, a sergeant from Washington County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue has revealed.

Holly Courtier went missing on Oct. 6 and was found safe on Sunday after intensive rescue efforts led to her location along the Virgin River. After reviewing the case, Sgt. Darrell Cashin, whose team assisted in the investigation, said he found "discrepancies and questions that do not add up."

At the time of her rescue, Courtier's daughter, Kailey Chambers, told CNN that her mother had been injured after hitting her head on a tree.

"She was very disoriented as a result and thankfully ended up near a water source — a river bed. She thought her best chance of survival was to stay next to a water source," she said, adding that her mother had no food to sustain her.

"She was too weak and disoriented (to seek help)," she said. "She was unable to take more than a step or two without collapsing. This prevented her from being able to seek out help. She told me she was so dehydrated she couldn't open her mouth."

Cashin, who has 25 years' worth of experience as an EMT, told ABC4 News that the Virgin River was not a clean water source. There are dangerously high levels of cyanobacteria, which comes from a toxic algae bloom, as well as various species of parasites. Courtier was likely to have died if she had consumed the water, Cashin said.

"If she had been drinking that water, unless she had some really high immune system, she would’ve been very, very ill and probably unable to come out on her own," the sergeant explained. "She either took a lot of water with her or had another clean water source that was near here, but the Virgin River is not that source."

Cashin also questioned whether or not Courtier had been severely injured.

"If we had found somebody in that condition with that kind of severe head injury, we would have at minimum called for a transport agency to check her out," he said. "The fact that that didn’t happen tells me that they did not find any significant injury to her that would’ve prompted them to do that."

Cashin added that there were questions surrounding Courtier's "decision making regarding her trip to the park." She reportedly left California in the middle of the night without letting her family know. Her location did not make sense either, he noted.

"If she’s by the Virgin River, she’s down in the valley, not in the backcountry up in the plateaus and the peaks," Cashin continued. "She’s in that main part of the canyon, which always has thousands of people walking up and down those trails. I’m sure people walked by yelling for her."

Cashin said the statements released by the National Park Service and courtier's family did not "add up."

"Those are the types of questions I think everybody has," he said. "I think the place where that question can be answered is with her."

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