John F. Russell
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — First responders recovered the body of a missing Oak Creek man on Thursday evening in a steep embankment off Colorado Highway 131, about 15 miles south of Steamboat Springs.
Kyle Baglo, 25, was found dead inside his overturned Honda CRV between mile markers 56 and 57 along the highway, according to Lt. Ryan Adrian of the Routt County Sheriff’s Office. The vehicle was about 130 feet down the embankment, he said, which made it almost impossible to see from the roadway.
The Routt County Coroner’s Office confirmed Baglo’s identity Friday after contacting next of kin.
Several Routt County residents were the ones who located Baglo’s vehicle, Adrian said. They used a drone to fly over the area and take pictures. Then, they uploaded the photos and enlarged them until they found the vehicle.
Authorities suspect that Baglo crashed on Sunday evening, the same day he was declared missing. He was last seen leaving his residence in Oak Creek in the same vehicle in which he was found, according to the Oak Creek Police Department.
On Sunday evening, Baglo made contact with his longtime girlfriend, Page Reed. He told Reed he was driving to the Golden Leaf marijuana dispensary, where they both work, to visit her, according to Reed. She said he had been drinking earlier in the day.
At 7:07 p.m., Reed received a text from Baglo saying that he was throwing up. It was the last contact she had with him.
Baglo’s last known location, based on a ping from his cellphone, was east of Steamboat, around the intersection of Colorado Highway 131 and U.S. Highway 40, according to Oak Creek Police Chief Ralph Maher.
It took first responders several hours to recover Baglo’s body on Thursday. Routt County Search and Rescue volunteers used the railroad tracks that run along the bottom of the embankment to reach the vehicle, Adrian said.
Adrian said it could take until next week to conduct an autopsy on Baglo’s body due to the extreme cold to which it has been exposed. Colorado State Patrol troopers and Oak Creek Police Department officers also responded to the incident.
