Deer Trail man dies during hunt for treasure

Two Colorado men went into the wilderness in search of treasure, and only one came back alive.

The pair set out from the Denver area March 17 to visit Dinosaur National Monument along the UtahColorado border to search for Forrest Fenn’s treasure, a bounty rumored to be worth about $2 million that an eccentric New Mexico antiquities dealer said he hid somewhere in the Rocky Mountains.

Thousands have searched for the treasure since Fenn announced the hunt in 2010 when he offered clues to the treasure’s location in a self-published memoir titled “The Thrill of the Chase.”

Fenn, 89, has said that he hoped the hunt would push more people outside to enjoy the wilderness.

But over the years, some have died during their quests, including at least four Colorado men.

“What happened was tragic,” Fenn said in an email Tuesday to The Denver Post. “My heart and prayers go out to the family and friends.”

Michael Wayne Sexson, 53, of Deer Trail and an unnamed 65-year-old man from Thornton set out from Denver last week.

The pair rented snowmobiles when they arrived at Dinosaur National Monument and roared last Wednesday into the wilderness.

They had a copy of Fenn’s book with them. They brought along a few candy bars and a couple bottles of water as they traversed into remote terrain near the northwest boundary of the park.

At some point, there wasn’t enough snow on the ground to ride on, and the pair abandoned their snowmobiles, pressing forward on foot.

“They were not dressed appropriately for the conditions, even for a day trip, and definitely not dressed for if something happened and they couldn’t get out of there,” said Lt. Chip McIntyre of the Moffat County Sheriff’s Office.

Last Wednesday night, the person who rented the snowmobiles to the men called the sheriff’s office to report that they hadn’t returned. And on Thursday morning, the wife of one man also reported the pair missing.

The search for the men started in earnest Thursday, McIntyre said.

And as the search got underway, authorities quickly realized that the same men had been rescued from the Wild Mountain area just two weeks before, on Feb. 29.

In that incident, the two were riding snowmobiles when they became stuck in deep snow. They were able to call 911 and were rescued the same day, unhurt, Uintah County Sheriff Steve Labrum said Tuesday.

This time, authorities started the search in the same area where the men had previously been rescued by Uintah County Search and Rescue.

The rescue teams found the men’s truck Friday; the snowmobiles were discovered Saturday morning, about 5 miles from a road, McIntyre estimated.

The men were found Saturday afternoon — about four days after they left. They had made it about a mile from their abandoned snowmobiles, as a bird flies, McIntyre said.

The men were found within 5 miles of the site of the Feb. 29 rescue, in steep, mountain terrain, Labrum said.

Sexson was dead when rescuers reached the pair. The unidentified 65-yearold man was treated at a hospital and later released.

“The survivor said at some point they’d tried to get out of where they were to call 911,” McIntyre said. “They knew they were in a bad situation.”

Sexson’s cause of death is pending, Moffat County Coroner Jesse Arthurs said

Tuesday, adding that he was waiting for a toxicology report to be finished before making the determination.

“I believe it will be ruled accidental,” he said. “There were no signs of foul play.”

Sexson is at least the fourth person to die in search of Fenn’s treasure. Randy Bilyeu, 54, of Broomfield died while searching along the Rio Grande in 2016; Paris Wallace, 52, a Grand Junction pastor, died while on the hunt in New Mexico in 2017; and Eric Ashby, 31, of Colorado Springs died during a rafting expedition in 2017.

Others, such as some rafters who set out down the Green River to look for the treasure, have been rescued, McIntyre said.

“The treasure hunting thing is, and I don’t know the statistics on it, but that comes up with the people who make the worst decisions,” said Sonya Popelka, a park ranger at Dinosaur National Monument.

Fenn, who has previously urged treasure hunters not to go out during the winter or go into dangerous places, has faced criticism after each death. In 2017, after Wallace died, the leader of New Mexico’s state police urged Fenn to end the treasure hunt, something Fenn has so far refused to do. He did not answer a question about whether he would consider calling off the search on Tuesday.

Terry Kasberg, a Florida man who has dabbled in the search for Fenn’s treasure for several years, said the hunt can be “very addicting.”

“Once you get involved, you can’t quit it,” he said, adding that he has tremendous respect for Fenn.

“He’s a really good guy,” Kasberg said. “But it’s kind of backfired on him a little bit. People are dying looking for your treasure.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.