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SANDY — A man is dead after crashing his motorcycle and later being pulled from a river in Little Cottonwood Canyon Sunday morning, police said.
Just after 9 a.m. Sunday morning, police received a call that two hikers had found a man, in his 30s or 40s, floating in a river alongside a hiking trail in Little Cottonwood Canyon in Sandy, according to detective Jared Richardson of Unified Police Department. The man, later identified as John Thorpe of Salt Lake County, was caught in some debris in the water, and one of the hikers relocated to further down the river so as to catch the man if he broke free, Richardson said.
The hikers were out of cell reception, but encountered a biker on the trail, who rode further down and called 911. Search and rescue teams were initiated at this point, Richardson said.
Officials at the scene determined that Thorpe had died by the time he was recovered, roughly 10:54 a.m., according to Richardson. It was later determined that he crashed his motorcycle while driving down the canyon, according to a Unified Police Department update. Thorpe was transported to the medical examiner’s office to help determine the full cause of death.
Little Cottonwood Canyon Road was briefly down to a single lane as a result of the incident, but has reopened fully.
The investigation remains ongoing, and more details will be released as they become available.
