Human Interests

Arizona Cave Team Looking for Family of Late Hiker Whose Wallet Was Found: We Want to 'Give a Little Happiness'

Jan 15, 2024
"Bringing something that her family thought might have been gone forever, back to them, I think would be pretty special," one Colossal Cave team member said

The team at Colossal Cave Mountain Park in Arizona is asking for the public's help to find the family of a late woman who had previously hiked the area.

According to a report from local outlet KGUN, Mancie Love had previously trekked across the destination and lost her wallet amid her journey.

Inside her wallet, the outlet said, were Love's driver's license, as well as other identification, including old credit cards, a Fry's credit card and a library card.

The wallet was discovered by cave lead Dalton Carper, who, according to KGUN, was mapping out a path so that wild cave tours could begin again for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.

He told the outlet, "We were crawling around for a while in a spot that not a lot of people have probably ever been, and we found it sticking out of the ground. Obviously, it piqued interest when you see something lime green coming out of the cave, so we picked it up."

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

After finding the wallet, Carper told KGUN that he enlisted help from the coordinator for the cave, Laure Sylvia, to see if they could track Love online.

"We started looking her up and we found that she did pass away last January 30th," Sylvia told the outlet. "She was 80 years old. And so we started looking for family, but we haven't been able to find any family members. There were no names listed in the obituary."

Even after searching Google and various social media sites numerous times, nothing came up, so Carper and Sylvia tried contacting the funeral home that was listed in her obituary. It was a dead end, however, as the establishment has not contacted them back, KGUN said.

"Bringing something that her family thought might have been gone forever, back to them, I think would be pretty special for them," Carper said of the wallet to the outlet, as Sylvia stated, "We just want to reunite you with this wallet and give you a little happiness, and just make it right."

Anyone with information about Love or her loved ones is now being asked to contact Colossal Cave at (520) 647-7275.