PHOTO COURTESY OF THE GILPIN COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE[/caption]

Gilpin County searchers found the body of a missing person on Fairburn Mountain on July 27, 2021. Harold Taylor, 65 years old, was reported as missing to the Gilpin County Sheriff’s Office on July 26. That same afternoon, a search was conducted in the Columbine Campground area west of Central City, but those involved could not locate Taylor.

On July 27, the Gilpin County Sheriff’s office issued a release asking for the public’s help in locating Taylor, who had been last seen leaving the Cold Springs Campground on Highway 119 in Gilpin County on July 22 to go hiking. A second search was organized on July 27 by the Gilpin County Sheriff’s Office, Gilpin Office of Emergency Management, Timberline Fire Protection District, and the Gilpin County Animal Response Team (GCART).

During the second search, members of Timberline Fire, Chief Chris Bondus and firefighter Tom O’Donnell, located a deceased person near Fairburn Mountain. Cherokee Blake, Sheriff’s Office public information director, pointed out that the Fairburn Mountain trail is a hiking trail northwest of the Columbine Campground, and accessed from Columbine.

Due to the rough terrain, members of GCART had to employ horses to transport the remains down the mountain.

The remains were later positively identified as those of Harold Taylor of Englewood, Colorado. The cause of death, as reported by the coroner, is consistent with acute heart failure.