WEST GLACIER – The Flathead County Sheriff says a 19-year-old Michigan man who died in Glacier National Park last summer likely drowned or succumbed to hypothermia and not a fall as originally believed.
Sheriff Chuck Curry said that Jakson Kreiser of Hudsonville, Mich., did not die of a traumatic injury.
Kreiser never returned from a hike on July 28. His body was found in a small waterfall drainage Sept. 13 by hikers in an area southwest of Hidden Lake. The cause of death was listed as exposure.
Curry says Kreiser probably slipped while crossing the cold-water drainage that was likely 20 feet wide, fast and several feet deep at the time.
But Curry says Kreiser might have bumped his head when he slipped.