May 23: Professor missing in Utah had a plan to die

Jerry O. Wolff of St. Cloud State University sent out letters talking about death before a search for him began.

By PAUL WALSH, Star Tribune

Last update: June 25, 2008 - 3:04 PM

The St. Cloud State University professor who has been missing in a rugged Utah park for more than a week expressed his intention to kill himself and "return my body and soul to nature," authorities said Thursday.

Jerry O. Wolff of Sartell, Minn., sent letters to relatives and "those with authority over his estate" with his suicide plan shortly before the search for him began in Canyonlands National Park on May 12, said Sartell Police Chief Jim Hughes.

"I am so sorry to burden you with yet another death," Hughes quoted from one of the letters sent to a relative and signed by Wolff. "I am gone in a remote wilderness where I can return my body and soul to nature. There is no reason for anyone to look for me, just leave me where I am."

Hughes said that Wolff's letters, one of them dated May 10, indicated that he was troubled "over a relationship ... and a few different things." Hughes declined to elaborate out of consideration to Wolff's relatives. He said that there's no reason to believe Wolff was in any trouble with the law.

Wanted to spare family pain

Shawn Thomas, who until recently had been living with Wolff along with her two school-age daughters, said she received one of the letters but had avoided mentioning that in previous interviews with the Star Tribune in an effort to spare family members the pain of public disclosure.

Thomas described Wolff as "an extremely stressed person," but she added that there was "nothing in his life that I was aware of that he should not have worked through," including them living apart.

Thomas, who is 38, said that at age 65, Wolff had made a point of preparing her for "the time I would have to go on without him."

Wolff entered Canyonlands with a permit to be there from May 10 to May 15. He was last seen when a private shuttle service dropped him at his backpacking starting point in the park's Needles area. There has been no sign since of the internationally known biology professor.

Thomas said that she contacted National Park Service rangers on May 12 because she had not heard from Wolff since he left. She said he typically checked in "almost daily" whenever he would take trips on his own.

Sartell police joined in the investigation, searching Wolff's home and collecting clothing that was sent to Utah so search dogs would have a scent to pursue.

Experienced traveler

Wolf has vast experience in the outdoors, including hunting in remote areas of Alaska, kayaking around Isle Royale and backpacking in a host of national parks in the western United States, Thomas said.

She said Wolff also has traveled the world for research and presentations, most recently to China for a month to study rodent behavioral research in Inner Mongolia in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Thomas, an assistant professor who teaches biology at St. John's University and the College of St. Benedict, joined him on that trip.

Denny Ziemann, chief ranger for the Canyonlands and Arches national parks, said that while sporadic search efforts will continue on the ground and in the air, they have been "dramatically scaled back."

There have been cases of park visitors never being found -- dead or alive -- Ziemann said, presumably falling into canyon crevices where humans cannot reach safely.

Sartell police said Wolff's case would remain open for the time being.

Staff writer Mary Lynn Smith contributed to this report. Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482