More heartbreak for the family of a young hiker who fell over a Yosemite waterfall to his death as they try desperately to get his body back home.
22-year-old Josué Baires Alfaro plunged over the 600-foot Nevada Fall in Yosemite National Park earlier this month. Now, his mother, Maria Josefa Alfaro — who previously lost her eldest son — is mourning the death of her second-eldest son.
“The pain of this loss is impossible to put into words,” the family said in a statement.
To make things worse, the grieving family is now tasked with getting Alfaro’s body back to El Salvador, his home country, so that he can be “laid to rest with dignity,” surrounded by all the people who loved him.
The family is struggling to cope with his sudden death and his absence. “He was more than a son, cousin, nephew, and friend – he was family in every sense of the word,” the statement continued.
“He was full of life, full of dreams, and had so much ahead of him. He had a way of bringing light into every room he walked into. He was funny, caring, and always knew how to make people laugh, even during difficult moments,” a GoFundMe set up after Alfaro’s death read.
A haunting final photo of Alfaro captured by another hiker, showed him wearing a baseball cap and struggling to stay above water near the waterfall’s drop.
Some of the onlookers in the Yosemite National Park shared what they saw after the tragedy. A user on social media reported seeing a body recovery mission at the park shortly after Alfaro went over.
“I was hiking Mist Trail this afternoon when people in yellow shirts (my first time there, guessing they’re emergency response of some sort) rolled a body bag down the granite steps on an off-road stretcher. We all had to step to the side so they could make it down the steps,” they said.