‘A HORRIBLE SHOCK’

Hiker Dies of Heat Stroke on Utah National Park Trip to Spread Dad’s Ashes

Ruth Hendricks Brough said park rangers presume her brother died from a combination of heat, high altitude, and dehydration.

A 66-year-old man from Texas is believed to have died from heat stroke while on a trip to Arches National Park in Utah to scatter his father’s ashes, his sister told San Antonio Express-News. Last week, the park issued an attempt to locate James Bernard Hendricks and later found his body off-trail nearby, officials said in a news release. An investigation into his death by the National Park Service and local police remains ongoing, but his sister Ruth Hendricks Brough said park rangers presume Hendricks died from a combination of heat, high altitude, and dehydration. According to Brough, her brother’s water bottle was empty when rangers discovered him. “He was a person who spread joy to every living thing he met, and to him, all the universe was alive, from human beings to fossils to stardust. It was all precious to him,” she said. “He was loved by countless people because he was an unusually kind, sweet person who made friends easily. Now all these people are grieving. It was a horrible shock.” NBC News reported that temperatures surpassed 90 degrees Fahrenheit in the area around the time Hendricks went missing.