Missing Hiker Found Dead Near Elbe Hills, Family, Friends Mourn

ELBE HILLS, WA –The family and friends of Chang Soo Kim of Spanaway are in mourning on Sunday after his body was found. He had been missing since the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend.

The Pierce County Sheriff's Office made the announcement on Sunday morning on their Facebook page.

Kim and his family were hiking near Mt. Rainier on May 25.

The sheriff says that they had been in dense forest around seven miles up a Forest Service Road in the Beaver Creek area picking ferns.

Kim, who was hard of hearing and did not speak English, was last seen just before noon that day when the family split up to look for ferns.

The Lakewood police canine team assisted the sheriff's search and rescue team and airplane in the search.

Several other agencies including the King's County Sheriff's Department, the Cowlitz County Sheriff's Office along with volunteer ground searchers from Pierce County Search & Rescue, King County Search & Rescue, Kitsap County, Kittitas County, Thurston County, Clark County, Cowlitz County Search & Rescue teams contributed to the effort.

On May 27, searchers found footprints and Kim's backpack.

Shortly after 5 p.m. on Saturday, June 8, Kim's body was finally located during a grid search of a swamp at the bottom of a valley in the Elbe Hills area.