Teen Feared Dead After Glacier Fall

ANCHORAGE, Alaska —  A teenage hiker who vanished three days ago on an Alaska glacier is presumed dead and at the bottom of a deep, water-filled hole in the ice, the Alaska State Troopers said Wednesday.

The search for Thomas Nazzaro, 17, of Durham, N.H., was officially suspended Wednesday morning after searchers on the Matanuska Glacier failed to find any trace of the missing hiker, said Trooper 1st Sgt. Paul Burke.

Troopers dropped a remote camera 250 feet down into the glacial hole Tuesday, but they found that the gap continued even deeper, Burke said at a news conference. Officials were unsure of the depth of the hole or how far Nazzaro fell, Burke said.

It would have been impossible for Nazzaro to survive both the fall and the exposure to the extremely cold water that was rushing into the hole, Burke said. It also appeared unlikely that searchers would ever recover the teen’s body, he said.