Salt Lake City attorney identified as man who died in Little Cottonwood Canyon rockslide

KEY TAKEAWAYS

A senior Salt Lake City attorney died in a rockslide on Saturday.
David Mull, 49, fell about 700 feet while hiking in Little Cottonwood Canyon.
Rescue teams responded; efforts by a doctor and nursing student to revive him were unsuccessful.

SANDY — A man who died after being caught in a rockslide Saturday morning was identified Monday as a senior attorney for Salt Lake City.

David Mull, 49, of Salt Lake City, died from injuries suffered in the rockfall, according to the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office. He was still employed at the Salt Lake City Attorney's Office, a city official confirmed to KSL.com.

About 8:45 a.m., Salt Lake County rescue teams responded to Bell Canyon by the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon. Authorities say Mull had been hiking alone when he fell about 700 feet. A doctor hiking in the area at the time of the fall provided aid before the rescue team arrived on scene, but Mull was pronounced dead.

Heather Hayes, whose husband was the doctor who arrived at the scene, told KSL.com the couple had interacted with him on the Pfeifferhorn trail — a peak above Bell Canyon — a few times before the fall. They had noticed a few rocks were loose because of rain the previous night. She said that, unbeknownst to them at first, Mull was hiking behind them when she looked back and saw him slip on one of the rocks.

"I watched him as it loosened on him, and he fell backward," Hayes recalled on Saturday. "It started a cascade of rocks, and he called out to me for help, but I couldn't even process what was happening as the rocks around us loosened and he fell backwards and started rolling down the mountain with the rockslide."

Another hiker who was a nursing student also assisted in the initial response. The Utah Department of Public Safety, Unified Fire Authority, Sandy Fire Department and Utah Department of Natural Resources also assisted in the search and rescue effort.

Mull joined the Salt Lake City Attorney's Office in 2019, according to LinkedIn. He wrote that he oversaw litigation issues tied to civil rights, eminent domain, personal injury, government immunity and property damage since then. He also worked for the Utah Transit Authority at one time, in addition to working as a law clerk in the Utah Supreme Court and as an attorney in the private sector.

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