Missing US tourist found dead in gorge in Indian Himalayan town

Maxmillian Lorenzo was attending a meditation retreat when he went missing on 8 November

A US tourist who went missing in north India’s Himachal Pradesh state has been found dead, authorities said on Tuesday.

Maxmillian Lorenzo, 30, had come to the state to attend a meditation retreat and went missing last week.

Police said he was staying at the Arra Camps in Naddi village and would hike daily to Gunna Mata Temple, a 4.5km trek that winds through thick forests.

“Last week, he went to meditate at an isolated place. On 8 November, he texted the camp owner saying he lost the trail and was stuck in the mountains and was also short of supplies. After that, he went incommunicado as his phone turned off,” Kangra superintendent of police (SP) Khushal Chand Sharma was quoted as saying to Hindustan Times.

Police said that the camp owner then proceeded to look for the US tourist on his own.

“On 10 November, it was only after the US embassy approached us that we launched a search operation,” Mr Sharma said.

Subsequently a joint team of state disaster relief officials and local police along with hikers and trekkers from the Regional Mountaineering Institute found his body in a gorge near Gallu waterfall, above Naddi village.

It was not yet clear how and when Lorenzo died. “The exact cause of death would be known after the postmortem, which would be conducted on Wednesday,” Kangra ADM Rohit Rathore said to the Times of India.

Authorities said that the tourist’s parents were on their way to Dharamshala. The trails in Himachal Pradesh and the Dhauladhar mountains have seen several deaths in the past.

Two French trekkers went missing in the Dhauladhar range in 2013. In September 2021 five trekkers were found dead in Himachal Pradesh’s Kinnaur district.