A trio of South Korean tourists disappeared during a road trip between the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas, according to Arizona officials.
Jiyeon Lee, 33, Taehee Kim, 59, and Junghee Kim, 54, were last seen traveling in a rental car on Interstate 40 on Thursday, March 13, according to the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office.
When the family of three didn’t make their scheduled flight back home, a family member called the Korean Consulate General in Los Angeles.
The two people who died in the wreck were Juan Beltran Sanchez, of Chino Valley, Ariz., and Evelyn Davis, of Ganado, Ariz.
According to a missing persons poster from the sheriff’s office, the family had rented a white 2024 BMW with California license plate number 9KHN768. (Arizona Department of Pubic Safety)
The Coconino County Sheriff’s Office officials informed FOX 10 Phoenix that they are worried because the vehicle’s GPS redirected them onto a forest service road.
“It was our concern that because of the weather conditions on that day and that major accident, their GPS may have rerouted them. And if you’ve ever traveled up in northern Arizona, when you get rerouted, sometimes GPS will reroute you out into a forest service road without knowing that weather conditions are harsh,” the sheriff’s office said.
The Coconino County deputies searched all corridors along I-40 within the area where the family’s rental vehicle was last pinged.
Entrance sign for Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. A man will serve prison time after setting fire to a cabin inside the park, federal prosecutors said. (Jim Lane/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Detectives do not know if this missing family was part of the fiery pile-up, saying that it “is not known if this vehicle was involved in the accident.” The family of three was driving a 2024 white BMW with a California license plate, according to the missing persons’ flyer.
Anyone with information about their whereabouts is asked to call the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office at 928-774-4523, 800-338-7888 or Silent Witness at 928-774-6111. The missing persons report number is S25-00828.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Arizona Department of Public Safety for comment.
