Dying man trapped in ravine writes letter

PROVO -- David Welch hopped into his maroon Pontiac Montana van last month and drove for hours. Without expressing where he was going, he kept on driving, police say.

Nearly seven weeks later, a hitchhiker found him in a deep, isolated desert patch in Utah, hundreds of miles from his Kansas home.

Injured and trapped in his car, he'd spent his final days penning love letters to his wife of 32 years and four sons.

Authorities say his car plummeted into the ravine in early September after it veered off the road.

Welch, 54, sat in his mangled car for days, maybe weeks, police say. Nights became days, then weeks, then over a month.

And as his family searched for him, he was trapped in his car, scribbling his last words.

What's in the notes is private, authorities say, and they have been handed over to Welch's family.

His family's ordeal started on September 2 when he left his home in Manhattan, Kansas.

A day later, relatives contacted the police to report he had not returned home.

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