The Elko County sheriff's office is investigating the death of a 77-year-old rancher who apparently became stranded in a snowstorm earlier this week.
Undersheriff Ron Supp says David Neff's family reported him missing Monday after he drove a tractor into a field in Ruby Valley and failed to return home.
Supp told the Elko Daily Free Press that members of the local volunteer fire department searched for Neff Monday night, but were hampered by heavy snow drifts that closed the highway into Ruby Valley east of Elko. His body was recovered on Tuesday.
Supp says it's not clear if Neff suffered a heart attack or succumbed to exposure while trying to walk back to the ranch in the storm.
Neff ran unsuccessfully for the Elko County Commission in 2008 as a candidate for the Independent American Party.
