Funds Raised For Family Of Bay Area Native Missing In Yosemite

PETALUMA, CA — A fundraising campaign to benefit the family of a Petaluma native who went missing at Yosemite National Park garnered more than $40,000 as of late Wednesday night.

The parents of Hayden Klemenok, 24, told the San Francisco Chronicle their son bent down to “get his face wet” when he slipped and fell into fast-moving and freezing rapids that carried him down a gushing waterfall.

Around 2 p.m. Sunday, Klemenok entered Chilnualna Creek near the trail junction, and his whereabouts remain unknown, according to Yosemite National Park officials.

Hayden's parents, Kevin and Michelle Klemenok have been at the park this week along with Hayden's siblings and relatives to help in the search.

"Michelle and family are currently taking time off work to look for Hayden," friend Connie Zell wrote on GoFundMe. "This go fund me is meant to help ease the pain of the costs of all the expenses and struggles they are currently facing. ... Hayden is a truly extraordinary young man who just recently graduated from SDSU with such a bright future ahead of him. We are all praying for a positive outcome. Anything that you can contribute is greatly appreciated."

Klemenok grew up in Petaluma and graduated from Casa Grande High School. He went on to earn a degree in finance from San Diego State University and was getting ready to move into an apartment in San Diego.

As of late Wednesday night, over $42,000 in donations were made to the GoFundMe campaign.

Members of the backpacking group told Klemenok's parents he bent down on all fours to get a drink of water. His hands slipped and he was pulled into the water on his back. The young men ran down the cliff “as fast as they could” to try to spot him as the water carried him down a steep drop, his mother said.

Klemenok’s parents said officials have told them that even with helicopters and extensive search technology, they’re almost certain that Klemenok drowned, making the mission no longer a rescue but a recovery that could take weeks before his body is found, his parents told the Chronicle.

“I arrived (thinking) we would find him battered or bruised,” Kevin Klemenok, a teacher in Petaluma, told the Chronicle. “My son is five miles up in a canyon waterfall right now, and I’m leaving here with his three siblings, his mother, and an aunt, and we don’t have him. It’s horrible … and it’s going to stretch on for every day that I’m alive.”

Although scaled back, the search for Hayden was continuing at Yosemite National Park. He was last seen wearing a tan, brimmed hat, white sunglasses, a red T-shirt, blue swimming trunks, and white Adidas shoes.

Anyone who may have seen Klemenok or was hiking off trail in the area of Upper Chilnualna Fall on or after Sunday is asked to email YOSE_Desk_Officer@nps.gov or call Yosemite National Park Dispatch at 209-379-1992.

"Simply knowing where you went and when you were there may help us focus the search, whether you saw anyone or not," park officials said on Facebook.