Salas’ body found; probe initiated

The body of 65-year-old Juan Salas—a man who was reported missing since the evening of May 1—was found just a few hundred feet below the Suicide Cliff cliff line last Friday morning and an investigation into what happened has officially been initiated.

Last Friday, the search for Salas entered Day 2 with the Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services finally able to rappel down the Suicide Cliff cliff line. After just two rappels, DFEMS located a body just a few hundred feet below which was later identified as Salas.

DFEMS spokesperson Rob Mojica, in a press conference last Friday, explained that DFEMS personnel were unable to rappel down on the first day of the search last May 2 due to poor weather conditions. However, on Friday morning, weather conditions improved and after just two rappels, at around 9:17am DFEMS located Salas.

“With our role in the search, we were initially going to repel down Suicide Cliff on Wednesday but due to the wind, we didn’t want the guys to go down and get stuck or have something worse happen. So, the first day of searching, we had four teams push out from Suicide Cliff toward the HOPE Center. We scattered about 500 to 600 meters on foot. [On Friday] when weather conditions permitted, we managed to do two rappels down the right side of Suicide Cliff, made our way around it hiking about 80 meters. The second repel we did, we managed to find the individual. We found him about 200 to 300 feet below the cliff line so just in the middle of the front of the cliff. There are no trails in that area, we had to repel to get to where he was at,” he said.

Acting Department of Public Safety commissioner Anthony Macaranas, during the press conference, shared that as of last Friday, DPS’ Criminal Investigative Bureau has launched an investigation into the incident.

“The case is still under investigation. But when there is a cause of death determination, we will be giving updates. CIB is actively investigating the case as we speak. It’s too early to divulge any information. I don’t know how long he was there for, but that’s information we can get at a later time. As far as injuries, the only injuries identified are injuries related to a fall. As far as anything else, that will be determined if further forensic autopsy is done,” he said.

Salas was reported missing on the evening of Wednesday, May 1.

“Family members were concerned because when Salas’ wife returned home at around 4:30pm that day, she said she couldn’t find him at home and could not contact him,” Macaranas said.

Because the family was concerned, they initiated their own search and went around the island looking for Salas.

At around 6pm that night, they found Salas’ car parked at Suicide Cliff at around 6pm. They made an official missing person report at around 7pm.

On Thursday, May 2, DPS Criminal Investigative Bureau along with a Critical Incident Response team (comprising of other first response agencies) had a briefing as to what the next course of action would be.

On Thursday, search teams comprised of different agencies and volunteers searched around the Suicide Cliff area including the bottom of Suicide Cliff, the cliff line, and nearby areas. Drones were even deployed.

The same day, DFEMS made an attempt to rappel down the cliff, however, due to bad weather conditions, their attempts were not successful.

This concluded Day 1 of the search for Salas.

The search picked back up again on Friday at around 6:30am with DFEMS and Customs set to search the Suicide Cliff area while other government agencies went on to search Cow Town going down to the Veteran’s Cemetery.

Just before 10pm, Macaranas said he was alerted that a body was found on the northern side of Suicide Cliff just a few hundred meters below the cliff line.

DFEMS managed to secure the body and through rappelling, safely lower the body down to the bottom of the cliff along the Marpi road where police received him and transported him to CHCC.

Salas’ wife identified the body as her husband shortly after.