Experienced hiker missing in Utah mountains found dead

DRAPER, Utah -- A missing hiker has been found dead in the mountains east of Draper in Utah.

Unified Police Lt. Lex Bell said the 43-year-old Kerry Crowley was found at the bottom of a cliff Wednesday morning near the Cirque of Lone Peak. Investigators believe Crowley fell 200-300 feet to her death.

Bell says Crowley told her family on Tuesday she was going to hike on the Jacob's Ladder trailhead. CBS affiliate KUTV reports that it was her first time hiking the Jacob's Ladder trail in Corner Canyon, according to police.

When her family hadn't heard from by Tuesday night, they reported her missing.

KUTV reports that her family found her Toyota Rav4 parked in the trailhead parking lot around 11 p.m. Tuesday.

"It's kind of terrifying," Kerry's husband Kent Crowley said before finding out his wife's fate. "When we pulled up and saw the car, I think we were all kind of in shock because we were hoping that she just started driving and her phone was dead."

Search and rescue teams looked for her in the treacherous terrain overnight. At 8:30 a.m., a crew aboard a helicopter spotted her body. Investigators believe she died Tuesday.

"Maybe she took a wrong turn, it's very easy to do up here, and ended up somewhere she wasn't familiar with," Unified Police Lt. Lex Bell told KUTV. "There's a lot of directions she could have gone and not have been familiar with this trail."

Police say Crowley was an avid hiker.