The Latest: Cousin: Some of 7 hikers met in California club

The latest on the deadly flash flooding to hit the Utah-Arizona border region (all times local):

3:14 p.m.

A relative of one of the seven hikers killed during a flash flood in Utah’s Zion National Park says some members of the group met through a Southern California hiking club.

Jeff Teichner said Friday that his cousin, 55-year-old Don Teichner of Mesquite, Nevada, frequently organized excursions for the Valencia hiking club. He’d recently left California as he prepared to retire.

Teichner says his cousin became an avid hiker in the last decade, enjoying the exercise and the friends he made through the club. Don Teichner was an executive in his family’s garment-dyeing business.

The mother of another hiker who died says he worked for the city of Burbank. Deanna MacKenzie Sisung says her 56-year-old son, Mark MacKenzie, looked out for others, sometimes carrying a watermelon in a backpack to serve on camping trips.

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1:24 p.m.

Family members say a group of seven hikers killed in a flash flood at Zion National Park were watching weather reports closely before heading into a narrow canyon where they got trapped during a torrential storm.

The children of 57-year-old Linda Arthur and 58-year-old Steve Arthur, both of Camarillo, California, said in a statement Friday that their parents were extremely cautious and went on regular hiking, backpacking and canyoneering trips.

They said the deaths of their parents and five others in the group Monday afternoon stemmed from being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Family members of three others in the group also released statements Friday saying their loved ones were mothers, fathers and grandparents with a passion for canyoneering and the outdoors.

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1:01 p.m.

Seven hikers killed in a flash flood at Zion National Park this week stopped to pose for a photo in their helmets, wetsuits and harnesses before heading into a narrow canyon.

Officials at Zion National Park released a photo late Thursday, showing the group from California and Nevada smiling and standing with their arms around each other on Monday afternoon.

Within hours, a torrential downpour sent a wall of water through the narrow gorge, killing all seven.

Zion spokesman David Eaker says the camera and the photo were discovered as crews tried to recover the bodies of the men and women in their 50s.

The photograph was released with the permission of the hikers’ families.

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9:54 a.m.

Authorities say flash flooding along the Utah-Arizona border killed a 33-year-old man whose body was found miles from his water- and mud-strewn SUV in a flood plain.

The Mohave County Sheriff’s Office said searchers on horseback discovered Ryan Daniel Mertlich, of Hurricane, Utah, on Thursday in northwestern Arizona. A helicopter extracted his body.

Merlich was last seen late Monday, when flash flooding in southern Utah killed at least 19 people in a small polygamous community and Zion National Park. Searchers are still looking for one missing child.

Sheriff’s spokeswoman Patricia Carter says Merlich’s body was recovered about 7 miles south of the Utah line and 6 miles from his heavily damaged SUV.

The sheriff’s office says he was known to drive back roads.

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8:33 a.m.

Authorities say the body of a 33-year-old man missing since flash flooding hit the Utah-Arizona border earlier this week has been recovered miles from his heavily damaged vehicle.

The Mohave County Sheriff’s Office in northwestern Arizona said in a Friday news release that searchers found the body of Ryan Daniel Mertlich, of Hurricane, Utah, on Thursday. His body was recovered about 7 miles south of the Utah line and 6 miles from where his heavily damaged vehicle was discovered in a flood plain.

Flash flooding Monday in southern Utah has killed at least 19 people in a small polygamous community and Zion National Park. One child remains missing.

Mertlich was last seen Monday evening when he left a relative’s home in the St. George area to return home. The sheriff’s office said he was known to drive back roads.

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