Search underway for family missing after visiting Grand Canyon during winter storm
Taehee Kim, Junghee Kim and Jiyeon Lee were last seen traveling from the Grand Canyon area to Las Vegas in a white rented BMW on March 13.
A family of three is reportedly missing after traveling to the Grand Canyon during an extreme winter storm last week.
The Coconino County Sheriff’s Office in Flagstaff, Ariz., shared a missing persons flier featuring the family on March 19, asking for information about Taehee Kim, 69, Junghee Kim, 64, and Jiyeon Lee, 23. The sheriff’s office noted the group was last seen traveling from the Grand Canyon area to Las Vegas on March 13 and that they were driving in a 2024 white BMW rental car with California license plate number 9KHN768.
Grand Canyon National Park posted on March 14 that winter storms had caused “hazardous conditions” throughout the park the day before. On March 8, the park warned on Instagram that “a couple of storm systems are expected to impact the Grand Canyon region next week” and named the “potentially much stronger storm” to hit on March 13.
The missing persons flier also noted that the rental car’s GPS showed it had been traveling westbound on Interstate 40 at around 3:30 p.m. PT on March 13.
Law enforcement said there was an accident involving 22 vehicles that occurred on I-40 around that time on March 13, but it’s not clear whether the family or their rental car was involved in the crash. The Arizona Department of Public Safety said it was a “weather-related fatal collision” that resulted in two fatalities and 16 injured people who were taken to hospitals, although the victims’ names have not been publicly released yet.
The Arizona-based National Weather Service reported on March 18 that more “gusty winds” and a “strong cold front” bringing rain and snow will continue to hit the area for the rest of this week.
This is a developing story. Please refresh this page for updates.
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