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MONTICELLO — Crews continued to search the Colorado River Friday for a Moab man who has been missing for a week.
The search for Casey Menuey, 33, who went into the water after being separated from his rafting group one week earlier, is now considered a recovery operation.
"We believe his body is in the water and that he is presumed, probably, to be dead because he had no life preserver. He's been missing now for six days," said San Juan County Sheriff Rick Eldredge.
He and other crews spent Thursday searching the river for Menuey. "I'm afraid our search and rescue efforts are now turning into recovery efforts," he said.
Menuey was rafting on the Colorado River on June 6 when he went missing. He was with six other people who stopped their river run to check out a trail in Lathrop Canyon. It was there that the group lost track of Menuey, and could not locate him after looking for many hours, according to sheriff's officials. Members of the group contacted the National Park Service and rangers located Menuey's trail to the riverbank, where investigators believe he got into the river.
Investigators do not suspect foul play.
Crews from the San Juan County Sheriff's Office and the Department of Public safety have flown over the area where Menuey went missing, looking for him on land and in the water. Rangers from the National Park Service have searched the river daily.
