• View of Grand Canyon National Park at sunset from the South Rim

    Grand Canyon

    National Park Arizona

Identification Made of Man Reported over the Edge at Grand Canyon

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Date: June 2, 2010
Contact: Shannan Marcak, 928-638-7958

Grand Canyon, Ariz. – The body of a man retrieved from below the rim at Grand Canyon National Park on Friday, May 21, has been identified as 64 year old Michael McMahon of Long Beach, California.

At approximately 5:40 a.m. on May 21, the Grand Canyon Regional Communications Center received a report of someone over the edge near Mather Point on the South Rim. Upon arriving at the scene, rangers spotted a body almost 600 feet below the rim and were told by witnesses that they had seen a man running up to and over the edge of the canyon. The body was retrieved by helicopter via long-line and transferred to the Coconino County Medical Examiner

Mr. McMahon’s death has been ruled a suicide.

-NPS-

Did You Know?

GRAND CANYON ROCKS

The more recent Kaibab limestone caprock, on the rims of the Grand Canyon, formed 270 million years ago. In contrast, the oldest rocks within the Inner Gorge at the bottom of Grand Canyon date to 1.84 billion years ago. Geologists currently set the age of Earth at 4.5 billion years.