Search Crews Find Body Of Brooklyn Man Missing In Mexico

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) – The search for a missing Brooklyn man who disappeared from a yoga retreat in Mexico has come to an unfortunate end.

On Friday, searchers found the body of Hari Simran Singh Khalsa, who had been missing in the rugged mountains in central Mexico since going on a hike four days ago.

Carlos Mandujano, the civil defense coordinator for Morelos state, said a search team found the 25-year-old's lifeless body.

As CBS2's Jessica Schneider reported, Singh was supposed to arrive back in the United States on Friday.

He was found in one of the narrow gorges or ravines that crisscross the rugged mountains in the colonial town of Tepoztlan, not far from where he was last seen in a picture of himself that he sent by cellphone.

"He has been found, but unfortunately, dead,'' Mandujano said. "We don't know the cause of death yet; that will be determined by the autopsy.''

While helicopters and hundreds of police and rescue workers combed the craggy mountains and cliffs around Tepoztlan this week, it appears Khalsa never went very far.

The body "was in the same wooded area, but the thing is that it is very rough terrain,'' Mandujano said.

"We know that he fell in a crevice and we know he succumbed to his injuries," family friend Kim Purcell said.

The search began Tuesday after the man didn't return from going on a hike in Tepoztlan, about an hour south of Mexico City, with only a T-shirt, shorts, and little food and water, said his wife, Ad Purkh Kaur.

Kaur said Friday from Tepoztlan that her husband was a yoga instructor born and raised in Brooklyn. The couple had been living in Leesburg, Virginia, and were planning to move back to Brooklyn at the end of the month.

Kaur, whose legal name is Emily Smith, said she and her husband arrived in Tepoztlan for a yoga retreat Dec. 26.

Tepoztlan, a frequent weekend getaway for Mexico City residents, is known for the towering, whimsically shaped cliffs and mountain peaks that tower over the colonial town on the valley floor.

Kaur said she heard from her husband at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, when he sent a picture of himself on a mountain top pointing to the site of the yoga retreat, with the message: "Looking down on you!''

She last heard from him about two hours after that, when he sent a text message.

"I accidentally summited another mountain,'' he wrote, Kaur said. "Looks like I'll be a little later coming back. Save me some lunch if you can.''

As CBS2's Tracee Carrasco reported, the man's wife was pleading Thursday night for help from a cellphone carrier to provide vital information that could lead to her missing husband.

Kaur said her husband was an experienced hiker who was just getting into backcountry hiking, though she said he didn't have much survival training as far as she knew.

"He hasn't done a lot of overnight hikes, or a lot of backcountry hikes,'' she said before his body was found. "He has gone on accidental overnight hikes before and had to come down the next day --- He's very adventurous and strong and smart and capable.''

On Friday, his family released a statement addressing Singh's death.

"His last picture said 'looking down on you.' We know he is an angel in the heavens now, looking down on all of us."

Singh is being remembered by those who knew him as a devote Sikh and advocate for peace, WCBS 880's Monica Miller reported.

"I just assumed that he was going to be one of the great leaders of the world way past when I was not going to be on this planet," one family friend told Miller.

Singh's family said they believe he died instantly and didn't suffer.

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