Indian Techie's Body Recovered from US Park After Weeks of Search

August 5 :
After weeks of searching, Glacier National Park rangers found 26-year-old Indian techie Siddhant Vitthal Patil's body. Patil drowned in Avalanche Creek on July 6, 2024. Parkgoers reported sighting a body around 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 4. Rangers quickly removed the bodies from the creek.

Technology professional Patil was from Maharashtra and lived in California. He went off-path while hiking with companions above a gorge on the Avalanche Lake Trail on July 6. Witnesses said Patil climbed a large boulder to gain a better view but slipped on the slippery terrain and fell into Avalanche Creek. Friends and spectators watched helplessly as Patil went underneath, momentarily resurfaced, and was dragged into the gorge by the fierce current.

On July 10, the park said guards monitored the area and found some of Patil's items downstream. They used a drone but failed to find anything. The creek's depth, turbulence, and underwater impediments like fallen trees and pebbles hindered the search. These submerged impediments may have trapped the body until reduced water levels permitted rangers to investigate.

Pritesh Chaudhari, Siddhant's uncle, thanked the park rangers and Indian American community leader Prem Bhandari for their constant support during the hunt. Bhandari, a prominent Indian diaspora leader, helped find and return the mortal remains to India. Bhandari wrote on X that park officials offered their sympathies to Siddhant's family and hoped retrieving the remains would provide them closure. Restoring the mortal remains to the mourning Indian family is next.