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Sotelo went missing on Sunday after her family dropped her off at Lafayette Place Campground in Franconia, NH, authorities with New Hampshire Fish and Wildlife Department said. The Vanderbilt University sophomore wanted to hike a popular trail in the White Mountains. Sotelo's mom reported her missing only hours after she failed to make their 3:30 p.m. meeting time at the Flume Gorge parking lot, authorities said.
Capt. Michael Eastman of New Hampshire Fish and Game's Law Enforcement Division, who co-led the search, told NBC Boston that searchers found Sotelo's body around 11 a.m. between Lafayette Brook and the mountain's summit. Searchers found tracks and several items that belonged to her in the waters near where her body was found.
"It looks like she had been blown off the top of the mountain in the high winds and cold temperatures," Eastman said.
Dozens of crews from multiple agencies helped in the three-day search, which was plagued with below-freezing temperatures and bad winds.
Her family told the Boston Globe that Sotelo loved the outdoors and was a motivated young woman studying chemistry and biochemistry in college. She wanted to hike all 48 of the 4,000-foot-tall mountains in New Hampshire before she turned 20.
Eastman told the Union Leader newspaper that Sotelo was "woefully unprepared" for the sub-freezing conditions she faced despite being an avid hiker with some survival training. Authorities said Sotelo wore light clothing, had little food and water, and had no way to start a fire.
“The White Mountains are not a joke," Eastman told the newspaper. "We’ve had 32 degrees in July at the top of a mountain."
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