Thomas Donnelly, a 21-year-old University of Cincinnati student from Cincinnati, was found dead Monday after a hiking trip in West Virginia ended in a search that had stretched through the weekend. Troopers located him around 2 p.m. within the search area after crews had been looking for the missing hiker in Tucker County.
For the people who knew him, the search ended the way they had feared it might. Donnelly was hiking with the University of Cincinnati Mountaineering Club, a trip that had started Friday, Oct. 9, and turned into a recovery effort after the group ran into trouble near Red Creek Trail and Fisher Springs. West Virginia State Police and the Harman Volunteer Fire Department responded Sunday around 11:39 a.m. to the report of a missing hiker.
Troopers said the group tried to cross South Red Creek near its confluence with Fisher Springs Run and encountered elevated water levels and swift currents caused by heavy rainfall. Donnelly lost his footing while trying to cross and was swept downstream. Initial attempts to find him did not work, and search efforts were suspended Sunday because of inclement weather and fading daylight before resuming Monday morning.
The timing made the loss more immediate for the University of Cincinnati community. Shaka Sydnor, UC’s dean of students, said the death was heartbreaking and had a significant impact on many members of the Bearcat community, adding that Donnelly’s family, friends and classmates were being affected by the news. The university said it would offer support services to students impacted by his passing.
The search is over, but the questions around how quickly a routine hike turned dangerous are not. What is clear is that Donnelly’s death has left a campus community mourning a student who had gone out with his club and never made it back.
