Case Details
- Photo URLs:
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- Missing Since:
- Missing Since 04/01/2007
- Missing From:
- Missing From Coconino County, Arizona
- Classification:
- Classification Lost/Injured Missing
- Gender:
- Male
- Race:
- Race White
- Date of Birth:
- Age:
- Age 61 years old
- Height and Weight:
- Height and Weight 5’10 – 6’2, 160 – 185 pounds
- Clothing/Jewelry Description:
- Clothing/Jewelry Description Light green or tan hiking pants, a shirt (possibly green and tan), a tan jacket, a light green hat and new heavy-duty hiking boots. Possibly carrying a day pack, a hiking stick and a camera in a black camera case.
- Distinguishing Characteristics:
- Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian male. Graying brown hair, blue eyes. Kirchner is a German citizen.
- Details of Disappearance:
- In early April 2007, a German physicist named Kirchner disappeared while hiking a remote part of the Navajo Reservation in Arizona. He was an experienced hiker in good shape, and this wasn’t his first trip to the US. When he didn’t meet his girlfriend in Las Vegas on April 9th, a search began.
His rental truck was found near a deep canyon (the Little Colorado River Gorge) on April 12th. The area has many hidden sinkholes – big holes in the ground – that are hard to spot, especially at night. These sinkholes were too dangerous to explore directly, but searchers used cameras to look inside.
A large search team looked for six days over a wide area (56 square miles), but they found nothing. Kirchner’s disappearance remains a mystery; it’s believed he likely got lost in the difficult terrain and fell into one of the sinkholes.
- Agency:
- Coconino County Sheriffs Office 800-338-7888
- Source Links:
This person was missing Missing Since 04/01/2007