Overview
- Authorities say 36-year-old Yuri Botelho was fatally struck on Nov. 26 while mountain biking in Peru’s Cusco region during a high-elevation storm.
- The group was near 14,000 feet in the Occoruro–Yaurisque area when police later found Botelho deceased; the tour guide was not seriously injured.
- Botelho’s remains have been cremated in Peru, and his family has met with the embassy and hopes to return to Minnesota with his ashes as soon as Tuesday.
- Companion James Alexander Fernandez, 41, suffered multiple neck fractures and a spinal cord injury, underwent emergency surgery, and remains on a ventilator as supporters raise money for a U.S. medevac.
- Botelho, a Brazil native who became a U.S. citizen in May and worked for the City of St. Louis Park, leaves behind his wife Kelsey and their 15-month-old son, with a GoFundMe aiding travel and related costs.