Evan Tanner dead at the age of 37

From: signonsandiego.com

"SAN DIEGO – A body was found Monday during an air-and-ground search for missing mixed-martial arts fighter Evan Tanner of Oceanside, whose empty campsite was located Sunday in a rugged Imperial County area.
The body was spotted Monday in the Palo Verde mountain area, about 60 miles northeast of Brawley, by a helicopter pilot from Marine Corps Air Station Yuma who was participating in the search, said Imperial County Sheriff's Lt. George Moreno.

An investigator from the county coroner's office was being flown in to retrieve the body.

"About noon we located a body; as to whether or not it is him (Tanner) hasn't been confirmed," Moreno said.

A search for Tanner, 37, began Friday after friends who knew he had gone camping alone in Imperial County were concerned about his welfare."

This was a statement released by his manager,

"Hayner said that Tanner had gone into the desert on a motorcycle expedition and had run out of gas. Tanner was attempting to walk out of the desert, Hayner said, but apparently didn’t realize how far away from civilization he was and died of exposure in the triple-digit heat. Tanner’s empty campsite was spotted Sunday, and an aerial search located his body earlier this afternoon.
...
"Here was a famous UFC fighter who didn’t have enough food to eat at times. I’d call him just to make sure he had food in his fridge, but he never let it get him down. Starting over was kind of a theme in his life. He hardly ever lived in the same place more than six months," Hayner said. "He moved out to Vegas and then found it too shallow for him, so he moved out to Oceanside and had a great place, he was learning to surf, and he was really enjoying his day-to-day life."

Horrible news, Tanner was always a fan favorite and everyone loved his free-for-all lifestyle. Tanner's last blog post seems to be a haunting prediction.

"I'm hoping that very soon I'll be sitting out in the quiet of the desert beneath a deep blue midnight sky, listening to the calm desert breeze. The idea going into the desert came to me soon after I moved to Oceanside. It was motivated by my friend Sara's talk of treasure hunting and lost gold, and my own insatiable appetite for adventure and exploration. I began to imagine what might be found in the deep reaches of the untracked desert. It became an obsession of sorts.

"Treasure" doesn't necessarily refer to something material.

Today, I ran to the store to pick up a few things, and with the lonesome, quiet desert thoughts on my mind, I couldn't help but be struck with their brutally stark contrast to my current surroundings, the amazing congestion in which we exist day to day. The landscape as far as I could see, crowded, choked, with me and the rest of the species, an almost writhing mass of organisms, fighting over space and resources,....on the highways, in the parking lots, on the sidewalks, and in the ailse of the stores. And to think, there are still places in the world where man has not been, where he has left no footprints, where the mysteries stand secure, untouched by human eyes. I want to go to these places, the quiet, timeless, ageless places, and sit, letting silence and solitude be my teachers.

I've been gathering my gear for this adventure for over a month, not a long time by most standards, but far too long for my impatient nature. Being a minimalist by nature, wanting to carry only the essentials, and being extremely particular, it has been a little difficult to find just the right equipment. I plan on going so deep into the desert, that any failure of my equipment, could cost me my life. I've been doing a great deal of research and study. I want to know all I can about where I'm going, and I want to make sure I have the best equipment.

One more week. I think one more week, and I'll be ready to go."

Tanner was part of the old guard in MMA and the UFC. He was an interesting character who made everyone happy. At one point he walked away from the sport to go to Brazil and just enjoy life, think Vincent Chase in the last episode of Entourage. He really was a mountain man of the old west, and died like one.