Overview
- Authorities identified the hiker as William Cooper Gatch of Statesboro, a 23-year-old University of Georgia senior.
- Connecticut officials said he fell from an unmarked route at Sleeping Giant State Park in Hamden and died in a wooded area before he could be moved.
- First responders reached him after a call to the state’s environmental agency, which confirmed his death at the scene.
- The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection said the case remains under investigation and offered condolences to his family.
- Family accounts in his obituary say he was nearing graduation in agricultural education after student teaching at Madison County High School, and he was hiking with his sister.