 Story highlights A man goes missing after he leaves his house on September 2 
 
 Nearly seven weeks later, he is found hundreds of miles away 
 
 He's found injured and trapped in a ravine; he used the time to write love letters to his family 
 
 His death leaves behind many questions 
 
 David Welch hopped into his maroon Pontiac Montana van last month and drove for hours. Injured and trapped in his car, he'd spent his final days penning love letters to his wife of 32 years and four sons. For the next month and a half, there were no clues to Welch's whereabouts. Within hours, his family contacted the Riley County Police Department, but spokesman Matthew Droge said searches and a subsequent missing-person report never turned up anything. Then, on the morning of Oct. 18, a hitchhiker in Utah rounded a bend along a barren stretch of Interstate 70  about 47 miles outside of Green River and nearly 900 miles from Welch's home. "It's a pretty lonely stretch out there," Utah Highway Patrol Lt. Scott Robertson said of the region.
– A sad, strange tale out of Utah: A 54-year-old man who set off from Kansas on an unexplained road trip crashed his vehicle in remote Utah, and it wasn't until seven weeks later that a hiker spotted the wreck with David Welch's body inside, reports CNN. But there's also this detail: Welch survived for days and perhaps weeks while trapped in his van and used the time to write love letters to his wife and four sons, reports the Salt Lake City Tribune. It remains unclear why Welch took off without explanation on Sept. 2. His family notified authorities that very day that he was missing, but subsequent searches turned up nothing. His final notes aren't being made public. Police speculate that Welch fell asleep at the wheel, causing his vehicle to go off a curve and into a ravine below. He was about 900 miles away from home. "It’s a pretty lonely stretch out there," says a Utah Highway Patrolman.