A 79-year-old Cave Creek man who disappeared while geocaching was found dead early Sunday in a ravine off Central Avenue, south of Carefree Highway, in New River.

Chuck Mettille, who searchers speculate may have slipped and fallen, was discovered after members of Arizona's geocaching community searched the dark desert with flashlights.

Geocaching is "new-age treasure hunting," said Charles Mahan, a family friend, Glendale real-estate agent and geocacher who gave the search direction after he went on Mettille's computer to deduce where the missing man likely would be.

Geocachers use latitude and longitude coordinates on GPS devices or apps on smartphones to find items hidden by other geocachers across 113 countries.

The family and geocachers instigated the search for Mettille, and geocachers came across his body. Police said an autopsy would be conducted to determine a cause of death.

"It was the geocaching community who went up that mountain and found my dad," said Cheri Garick, one of Mettille's daughters.

"This whole community, everyone was chatting online, asking where were (my dad's) last coordinates. Thank God for these geocachers; I can't thank them enough."

Mettille left home about 11 a.m. Saturday, telling his wife, Ginny, that he'd return in a couple of hours.

He was usually so reliable that when he was not home by late afternoon and not answering his cellphone, the family became alarmed.

Garick said she was angry that Phoenix police wouldn't launch a missing-persons search after she called.

"The police said, 'We can't ping his phone because of privacy laws.' " Garick said. "(Police thought) we were going to be sitting here twiddling our thumbs, waiting for somebody to come up with his car?

"My husband said, 'We're not sitting around. I don't care if we have to drive every street to find his car.' "

Sgt. Tommy Thompson, a Phoenix police spokesman, on Sunday said: "We take missing-persons matters very seriously. We have criteria we follow because we get 7,000 to 9,000 missing-persons reports a year. ... Initially, (the family) did not know where he was, to begin a search."

Mettille's car was found before midnight Saturday, and Garick again called Phoenix police.

Once geocachers found Mettille's vehicle, officers worked with them in the search, Thompson said.

"It's a tragedy any time someone goes out to enjoy the mountains and they die," Thompson said. "It sounds as though this guy enjoyed his hobby and was in great shape. It's a tragedy."

Mettille was found after midnight about two-tenths of a mile from his car and about 50 yards from a trail, said Mahan, the family friend who described Mettille as having been very passionate about geocaching. The hobby started when President Bill Clinton expanded the use of satellites beyond government use to personal use.

Kraig Neese, a searcher and fellow geocacher, later retrieved the cache Mettille had been searching for, which turned out to be a canister containing a ball. Also retrieved was the log that geocachers sign when they find the cache. Mettille had signed that log at 11:11 a.m.

"My dad was the first to sign it," Garick said. "It's a big deal when you're the first, because there's a race. When you're the first, it's huge."

Mettille, who had recently moved with his wife from their longtime home in Scottsdale to Cave Creek, was retired after decades of working for the phone company that's now called CenturyLink but was known as Mountain Bell when he started.

Garick said he was the type of man who, as a manager, was still willing to get his hands dirty.

Mettille's wife, Ginny, said early Sunday afternoon that she had received 63 e-mails praising her husband.

"They were saying what a wonderful person he was," she said. "He was personable, friendly and outgoing."

Besides his wife, Mettille is survived by five children: Cynthia Davis of Phoenix, Jacqueline Konieczka of Peoria, Randy Mettille of Phoenix, Cheri Garick of Scottsdale and Karen McKinnon of Plano, Texas. He is also survived by a brother, Richard Mettille of Phoenix, and two sisters, Carol Easley and Liz Gassoway, both of Phoenix.