A trio of South Korean tourists disappeared during a road trip between the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas, according to Arizona officials. Jiyeon Lee, 33, Taehee Kim, 59, and Junghee Kim, 54, were last known to be traveling in a rental car on Interstate 40 on Thursday, March 13, according to the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office.
When the family of three didn’t make their scheduled flight back home, a family member called the Korean Consulate General in Los Angeles. “We were contacted on the 18th of March by the South Korean Consulate and advised of three missing individuals that were traveling from the Grand Canyon to Las Vegas,” officials at the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office told Fox News Digital.
The rental vehicle’s last known location coincides with a fatal pile-up accident on the same interstate during a winter storm, according to a release from the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
The crash happened around 3:27 p.m. on westbound Interstate 40 near milepost 159.5 in Williams, Ariz. It involved 22 vehicles, including 13 passenger vehicles.
The winter weather conditions, which caused the busy interstate to be lined with ice and snow, caused a tractor-trailer to jackknife and “completely obstruct the interstate.” The involved vehicles were engulfed in flames – including some that burned for more than 20 hours at “extreme temperatures,” authorities said.
A total of 36 drivers and occupants were involved in the accident, including two fatalities, and 16 people were injured and transported for medical care, authorities said. The two people who died in the wreck were Juan Beltran Sanchez, of Chino Valley, Ariz., and Evelyn Davis, of Ganado, Ariz.
Officials with the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office told FOX 10 Phoenix that they are concerned that the vehicle’s GPS rerouted the family’s vehicle into a forest service road.
“It was our concern that because of the weather conditions on that day and that major accident, their GPS may have rerouted them. And if you’ve ever traveled up in northern Arizona, when you get rerouted, sometimes GPS will reroute you out into a forest service road without knowing that weather conditions are harsh,” the sheriff’s office said.
The Coconino County deputies searched all corridors along I-40 within the area where the family’s rental vehicle was last pinged. Detectives do not know if this missing family was part of the fiery pile-up, saying that it “is not known if this vehicle was involved in the accident.” The family of three was driving a 2024 white BMW with a California license plate, according to the missing persons’ flyer.
Anyone with information about their whereabouts is asked to call the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office at 928-774-4523, 800-338-7888 or Silent Witness at 928-774-6111. The missing persons report number is S25-00828.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Arizona Department of Public Safety for comment.
