Khayman Welch went missing when he was 25 years old in Tonto National Forest, Arizona, which is the largest of 6 national forests in Arizona, and the fifth largest national forest in the United States. He was last seen on August 12, 2020 and the same day he went missing he was working with his uncle to do AC work at Tortilla Flat. On their way home, they made a stop at Weaver’s Needle Vista to watch the sunset. Khay had told his uncle that he wanted to watch the sunset from the needle and then he walked off into the desert and has not been seen or heard from since. Welch did not have any belongings, food or water with him when he disappeared and temperatures in the desert where he walked reach 110°F and even higher.

An extensive search was done in the area which included teams searching on foot, tracker dogs, horseback riders, drones, and helicopters with infrared cameras. During the search, there was no recovery of anything that could have possibly belonged to Welch. Khayman was last seen wearing a black ghostbusters t-shirt, black jeans, black framed prescription eyeglasses, and army style boots. He is a white male who stands about 6 feet tall and weighs about 200 pounds. He has brown hair cut in a buzz cut and hazel eyes, as well as full sleeve tattoos on both arms and ear gauges in both of his ears.

Volunteers and friends that were helping in the search of Khay started to study images, hiking videos, and familiarizing themselves with the trail that Khayman was last seen on. While doing so, they discovered images of the Battleship mountain which resembles Weaver’s needle. It is possible that Khay mistook another rock formation that looked like Weaver’s needle and proceeded on the wrong route which only pushed him deeper into the desert and out of the expected range for authorities to be searching.

There has been no sign of Khayman Welch since his disappearance and there was very little media coverage of this case compared to other disappearances. It was reported that Khay was struggling with depression, which leads some to think that this was a suicide, or a way for him to escape from reality. The desert that he disappeared into reached very high temperatures from 110°F to 115°F on a daily basis. It was a vert difficult time for the Welch family, as the father of Khayman’s little brother passed away in August 2020 following his disappearance.