Juab County police believe they found evidence of homicide, desecration of a dead body and obstruction of justice in the case of two teenagers who were reported missing early last month.
Police searched the property of one of the missing kids’ mothers in mid-January and questioned three people about the disappearance, according to an affidavit for a search warrant that was unsealed Monday.
No one has been arrested, according to the Juab County Sheriff’s Office, but “the investigation has significantly advanced” since the search of the property.
Riley Powell, 18, and Brelynne “Breezy” Otteson, who turned 18 on Jan. 27, were reported missing Jan. 2. They had left Tooele about 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 30, reportedly to go to their Eureka home, according to family members. But the teenagers never arrived.
(Photo courtesy of Amanda Hunt) Riley Powell
Juab County officials have said they “strongly” suspect foul play in the teenagers’ disappearance.
While searching Cherry Creek Reservoir on Jan. 11, an aerial search crew saw the Jeep the teens had been riding in before they were reported missing.
Police believe the vehicle was intentionally abandoned near Cherry Creek Road by someone other than the teens. It was obscured by trees and out of sight from the road, according to an earlier news release from the Sheriff’s Office.
According to the search warrant, two of the Jeep’s tires had been punctured after the vehicle had stopped moving.
Investigators also found a “camouflage tie down strap” stuck in the driver’s side of the car, according to the search warrant.
On Jan. 16, the search warrant states, investigators searched the house where Powell’s mother and grandmother live with their boyfriends.
In a truck on the property, police found a tie-down strap identical to the one stuck in the Jeep. Police suspect that the truck was used to tow and hide the Jeep to “give the illusion that the victims [were] indeed stranded.”
Police interviewed three people. One man, the boyfriend of Powell’s mother, refused to talk to police.
Cherry Creek Reservoir is about 14 miles southwest of Eureka.
