A 50 year-old man missing since Friday, July 6, was found dead on Green Mountain near North Bend around 2 p.m. Monday, July 9.

John Wright, of University Place, apparently fell several hundred feet off a cliff, and did not survive the fall.

He’d been reported missing Friday, when he didn’t pick up his daughter as planned. The King County Sheriff’s Office began a search for him in the area when they pinged his cell phone near the Cedar River Watershed. Deputies also found his car there, near the trailhead. They narrowed their search to Green Mountain after a hiker who’d met Wright on Friday told deputies he was heading to that area.

Helicopters have been searching since Saturday, and search and rescue personnel, using four-by-fours and horses, have travelled the trails on the mountain. They’d found footprints believed to be Wright’s and just hours before finding Wright’s body, searchers were still optimistic.

“His family is up here, and they said he’s a very experienced hiker,” King County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Cindi West said earlier in the day.