Body found in Grand Canyon area believed to be missing Healdsburg man

The mystery of what happened to Healdsburg resident Peter Schwab, who disappeared during a river rafting trip through the Grand Canyon last month, appears to have been solved.

A man’s body was discovered some ?15 miles down the Colorado River from where the 66-year-old Schwab went missing on June 28 about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Based on evidence found with the body, it is believed to be Schwab, the National Park Service said in a statement.

The body discovered by members of a commercial rafting expedition turned up just below a notoriously difficult rapid named Lava Falls, said Becky Latanich, a park service spokeswoman. The body was transported by helicopter to the canyon’s south rim, then transferred to the Coconino County medical examiner in Flagstaff, Arizona for positive identification.

“I’m sorry, I can’t talk right now,” Schwab’s wife Ann McMahon said, when reached by phone late Thursday afternoon.

Schwab was a seasoned outdoorsman who’d backpacked in the Sierra mountains, and “loved a good float down the Russian River,” his daughter, Vivian, told The Press Democrat earlier this month.

His decision to join the rafting expedition down the Colorado River was a spur-of-the-moment decision upon learning a final spot was available on the trip, she said.

The expedition started June 17. Eleven days into the adventure, he was reported missing after a morning hike into a well-known side canyon.

Search teams in helicopters, boats and on foot spent several days looking for him. On July 3, park service officials said Schwab was presumed to have drowned.

You can reach Staff Writer Austin Murphy at 707-521-5214 or austin.murphy@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @Ausmurph88