Brook Cheuvront, American student who went missing during a hike, found dead on South Africa's Table Mountain

A University of North Carolina student who was in South Africa for an internship was found dead after she disappeared while hiking on Table Mountain in Cape Town, authorities said Monday.

Brook Cheuvront, 20, of Newland, North Carolina, was reported missing on Saturday after a tracking app she used stopped updating and friends could not reach her, SANParks spokesman JP Louw said.

Management at SANParks, which manages Table Mountain and other national parks, said the cause of death was still unclear and an investigation into her death had been launched.

The initial search was conducted by rangers, wilderness rescue members and trail runners until it was virtually impossible to continue late Saturday night, Louw said. The next day, the search was assisted by an aircraft that helped locate the body.

The 20-year-old was a sophomore at UNC and a Morehead-Cain scholar interning in South Africa at the University of Cape Town, CBS affiliate WNCN reported. She was the valedictorian of 2022 at Avery County High School, where she was a track and field athlete.

In a Facebook post, Cheuvront's family said they were “devastated.”

“She has been recovered. We are devastated. God help me and us,” wrote Steve Cheuvront.

The South African authorities are urging the population to avoid hiking on their own and recommend doing so in groups of at least four people.