17-Year-Old Girl Slips, Falls 30 Feet To Death While Hiking With Friends

A 17-year-old girl fell about 30 feet to her death while hiking in Moab City, Utah.

Zoe McKinney was hiking with her friends on the Moab Rim Trail in the Kane Creek Canyon area when she slipped and fell about 30 feet off a sheer cliff face at around 4 p.m. Friday, KIRO 7 reported.

The friends called 911 and tried to make their way to McKinney but to no avail. First responders arrived at the scene and "worked vigorously to climb to the area above the victim," the Moab City Police Department said.

The rescuers used harnesses, ropes and climbing gear to rappel down to McKinney's location and retrieve her body.

"Sadly, she was deceased from the fall. Rescuers worked diligently to recover her body over the next two hours," the police department said in the statement.

"Moab Police Department wants to extend our heartfelt condolences to her family and friends," the department said. "We recognize the devastating impact the loss of a beloved young woman and friend has in this small community, but know that wonderful people of Moab will band together to support and comfort her family and friends at this time."

Friends described McKinney as a teenager full of life and loved by those around her.

"She was tiny, but she was mighty," said Marcy Mason.

"She was trying to be a model," said Iryss, Mason's daughter and McKinney's close friend.

Rebecca Monceaux, whose daughter Avery Orton saw McKinney as a good friend, said the deceased teenager was "just somebody that the girls really looked up to, she was a senior and she just had so much ambition and big plans ahead of her.

Monceaux described McKinney as an "unconditionally loved friend" and said "it's a really tough loss" for her friends.

"All the girls on the team and all of her friends in high school really looked up to her as somebody they could become one day," Monceaux added.

"One person that like I was there for everyone on the team and talked to us all the time, so we were just really close with everyone, especially her," Avery said.

Mason said that McKinney saw herself having a big wedding. "She just had a big heart and her boyfriend Lloyd was her whole world. She had big plans with him and made sure all the girls knew and had plans for a big wedding."