A University of North Carolina student who was in South Africa for an internship was found dead after she went missing while on a hike on Table Mountain in Cape Town, authorities said Monday.
Brook Cheuvront, 20, of Newland, North Carolina, was reported missing on Saturday after a tracking app she was using stopped updating and friends could not reach her, said SANParks spokesman JP Louw.
The management of SANParks, which manages Table Mountain and other national parks, said the cause of death was still unclear and an inquest into her death has been opened.
An initial search was conducted by rangers, wilderness search and rescue members, and trail runners until late Saturday evening when it was no longer practical to continue, said Louw. An aircraft joined the search the next day and helped to locate the body.
The 20-year-old was a sophomore at UNC and a Morehead-Cain Scholar who was in South Africa for an internship at the University of Cape Town, CBS affiliate WNCN reported. She was the 2022 valedictorian at Avery County High School, where she was a track runner.
In a Facebook post, Cheuvront's family said they were "devastated."
"She was recovered. We are devastated. God help me and us," Steve Cheuvront wrote.
South African authorities have urged people to avoid hiking on their own, suggesting it be done in groups of at least four people.
In a social media post on Monday, SANParks said suggestions that there are "growing concerns of crime" at Table Mountain are "speculative and may cause unnecessary alarm which undermines worthy and successful efforts."
"Over the last year, the official crime statistics have drastically decreased from 16 and 32 respectively in October and November 2023 to 6 in July 2024 and 3 in August 2024," the post said.
The post did not mention Cheuvront or any other recent incidents.
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