Woman says son who died in desert was experienced outdoors

By Jean Reid Norman

Thursday, Aug. 13, 2009 | 11:42 a.m.

A man who died of exposure in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area was in the desert for days before he perished.

Steven Corso, 43, of Bullhead City, Ariz., was an experienced outdoorsman who would pick up junk that had been left in the desert and take it to local recyclers, his mother said. He would often go out for a day or two, usually in the hills east of Bullhead City, but he always returned, she said.

Corso headed out July 31, his mother said. His body was found Aug. 5 on a little-used dirt road about one-half mile from where his GMC Yukon sport-utility vehicle had gotten stuck in the sand, National Park Service spokesman Andrew Munoz said.

He had been dead only a day or so, Dr. Rexine Worrell, the Mohave County medical examiner, said. Park rangers said it appeared he had tried to chew into a barrel cactus for its moisture.

His mother said he always went into the desert prepared.

“He always had water, always,” Jeanne Corso said. “He never left the house without it.”

He usually also had tools with him, but he had recently bought a trailer to hitch to his SUV for a handyman business he had opened with his 20-year-old son, she said. The tools were in the trailer.

They would use the truck and trailer to head out into the desert to pick up junk others had left behind, she said.

“They were amazed at the amount of junk left in the desert,” she said.

Jeanne Corso called Bullhead City police when her son did not return on Aug. 3, she said. She knew he would not deliberately stay out longer, because his father had just gotten out of the hospital after having surgery, she said.

“We are so devastated,” she said.

Jean Reid Norman can be reached at 948-2073 or [email protected].