30-year-old US citizen found dead in Dharamsala’s forest area, was missing since Nov 8

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, November 15

 30-year-old US citizen, Macmillan Anderson, who had gone missing in Himachal’s Dhauladhar Mountain Ranges has been found dead. The Kangra Police party that was searching Macmillan on Tuesday discovered his body in a gorge in forest area uphill from Naddi.

SP Kangra, Khushal Sharma when contacted by The Tribune said that Macmillan was living in hotel in Naddi area of Dharamsala. He used to go into mountains daily for trekking. He messaged the hotel owners on November 8 that he has got struck in mountains and was running low on food. Since then he remained incommunicado as his phone got switched off. The hotel owners did not inform the local police and instead started searching for him on their own, he said.

SP said that the police was informed about missing Macmillan by US Embassy on November 10. Since then the police parties had been searching for him in mountain ranges. Today also sniffer dogs, police parties and a team of local trekkers have been sent into Dhauladhar mountain ranges to trace Macmillan. The dead body of the US trekker was found lying in gorge. It seems he fell into the gorge and later died due to cold. However, the exact reasons for his death could only be ascertained after post mortem, he said.

The sources here said that the parents of deceased trekker who belong to North Carolina in US were on their way. The dead body would be handed over to them by police after they arrive in Dharamsala.

Many trekkers who venture deep into Dhauladhar mountain ranges without any local guide get struck in higher reaches due to sudden change in weather or accident. Last year two local trekkers were killed when they got trapped in snow storm in Dhauladhar hills.

In 2016 two human skeletons found at a height of 4342-meter high Inderhaar Pass in Dhauladhar Mountain range, will be sent for DNA testing to ascertain the identity of the victims. 

The skeletons were found to be of two French trekkers Valentin Marcel Gorges, 20, and Francois Xavier Camille, 21 who went missing from the same area in August 2013. 

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