David Mull, 49, was a senior attorney for Salt Lake City, representing the city in civil rights cases and open records requests.
(Rick Egan | Salt Lake Tribune file photo) Hikers on the Bell’s Canyon Trail in 2020. A hiker who died in a rock slide near the canyon on July 19, 2025, has been identified as a prominent Utah attorney.
The hiker who died in a rock slide near Bell’s Canyon over the weekend was a prominent attorney who worked in Salt Lake City government.
The Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office identified the victim of Saturday’s rock slide in Little Cottonwood Canyon as David Mull, 49, of Salt Lake City. A spokesperson for Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall confirmed that Mull was an attorney working for the city.
A doctor hiking in the area found Mull first and performed first aid, according to a sheriff’s office release. Members of the office’s search and rescue team arrived about 8:45 a.m. Saturday. Despite life-saving efforts, Mull was pronounced dead at the scene. No one else was injured in the slide, the sheriff’s office said.
According to his LinkedIn page, Mull had been a senior attorney in the city attorney’s office since 2019. His areas of law included civil rights and open-records requests under Utah’s GRAMA law.
Before working for the city, Mull spent 16 months as a partner at Magleby Cataxinos & Greenwood, a Salt Lake City law firm. Before that, he spent five years as senior corporate council for the Utah Transit Authority.
Mull graduated from the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law in 2002, his LinkedIn page said.
His wife, Keli Beard, is also an attorney, and is senior legal counsel for the state’s Trust Lands Administration. No other information on survivors was immediately available.
This is a developing story.