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Hiking influencer Hannah Moody’s cause of death has been revealed more than a month after she was found dead near an Arizona trail.
The Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office online records showed that the 31-year-old woman, who often posted videos of her hiking escapades to her almost 50,000 followers on Instagram, passed away due to environmental heat exposure.
Her death was ruled accidental.
Moody’s lifeless body was discovered a mere 600 yards away from the Gateway Trailhead parking lot in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve on May 22. This finding occurred more than a day after she was last observed hiking in that area, as disclosed by the Scottsdale Police Department during that period.
After Moody’s friends, worried about her well-being, reported her missing on the night of May 21 because they had not received any communication from her, authorities initiated a thorough search on the ground and from the air for the enthusiastic hiker.
“I hope that she didn’t suffer,” Moody’s mom, Teri, told AZFamily.
“I hope that she was unaware of what was happening. It was preventable, which, that’s kind of a hard pill to swallow.”
The outlet reported that temperatures had reached 102 degrees when Moody set off on the fatal hike.
The influencer, who also shared content about her faith, is remembered as a free-spirited and loyal friend, a fitness enthusiast and a fierce competitor.
“It’s still hard to picture what happened and to figure out how she was in those last moments,” her mother told the local outlet, expressing hope that her daughter’s tragic death might save a life.
“I’m hoping that it wasn’t all for nothing. That if one life is saved because of Hannah, then that’s one life that’s been saved.”