Search for UTA truck suspends for evening
by Sublette County Sheriff’s Office
May 18, 2016
(Pinedale, Wyoming – May 18, 2016, 8:14PM) A search of the Half Moon Lake campground and surrounding area is being conducted by law enforcement officers from multiple agencies including the Sublette County Sheriff’s Office, Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigations, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, Centerville Police Department, and Utah Transit Authority after the body of Kay Porter Ricks,63, was found in the Kemmerer area of Lincoln County on Tuesday night.
The Utah Division of Public Safety is also offering their assistance with the search, sending a dive team and sonar equipped search boat, and should be arriving in Pinedale on Wednesday evening. Aerial assets are also a possibility.
The search for Ricks’ missing UTA truck, described as a white Ford F-150 pickup with a truck bed mounted equipment rack, UTA markings, and bearing UT license plate #206886, began on Monday morning after information was forwarded to the Sublette County Sheriff’s Office from UTA about Ricks’ disappearance. All vehicle-accessible areas were searched in and around both Fremont and Half Moon Lake areas by search teams throughout the day and on Tuesday morning with no signs of the missing truck.
The search for Ricks’ missing vehicle has been focused on the Half Moon Lake area after arrests were made on Flint Wayne Harrison, 51, and Dereck James "DJ" Harrison. The father-son duo had fled Utah from Centerville, PD after kidnapping and assaulting a woman and her four daughters last Wednesday. Following a four-day manhunt, Flint turned himself in to the Sublette County Detention Center on Saturday at approximately 1:40am. He provided information about the location of DJ in the Half Moon lake area, which led to his arrest late Saturday night.
Both men refused to provide details on how they made it to Pinedale from the Salt Lake City area, and their last known location before leaving Utah was in the area where Ricks was reported to have gone missing.
A preliminary search of the lower boat ramp of Fremont lake earlier this morning eliminated that area as a possible location of the missing truck, and a search of additional sites on Fremont lake and of Half Moon lake was postponed until DPS assets could arrive.
A ground search of the area where the Harrison’s campsite had been found late Saturday afternoon was conducted by multiple agencies throughout Wednesday afternoon.
The search of the lake and continued search of the ground is planned to reconvene Thursday morning.
Additionally, local investigators have been following up on tips that may have placed Flint and DJ in Pinedale on Thursday evening, as well as the UTA truck. Several surveillance cameras are being looked at from local businesses, though nothing has been discovered as of yet.
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