Outdoorsman died of exposure

The man who went missing in Albemarle in late September and was found dead 12 days later succumbed to the elements.

The state medical examiner’s office released its findings Monday, stating that Earl Funk, 49, died of environmental exposure, according to Steve Murman with the medical examiner’s office.

Funk, of Staunton, was an experienced woodsman who went missing in the Cedar Mountain area near Shenandoah National Park on the afternoon of Sept. 29 while searching for ginseng roots.

He and a friend had been out together searching different areas. The friend later found the ATV Funk had driven but not Funk.

The Albemarle County Sheriff’s Office worked with the National Park Service and many other agencies and volunteers, who searched long hours in dangerous mountainous areas.

Searchers eventually found Funk’s body in a dense area at the bottom of an approximately 100-foot rock face.