MICHAEL RIGERT - Daily Herald | Posted: Monday, April 10, 2006 11:00 pm
When employees of a Provo business took a boat into the river to clear a log jam Monday afternoon, they may have solved the mystery of a 22-year-old Provo man missing since October.
Provo police were called to 3700 W. Center St. after two 27-year-old men employed with Clas Rope Courses cleared the log jam in the Provo River and discovered a dead body entangled in the debris.
Provo police Capt. Rick Healey said police received the call at 2:14 p.m. and immediately dispatched officers and firefighters to the scene.
Though he said investigators weren't sure if the body was male or female, police have a pretty good idea who the person may be.
"A young man was lost near the river in October," Healey said. "The percentages are pretty high that it's him."
He was referring to Sitha Say, a Provo resident whose parents reported his disappearance Oct. 22. Though little was known about Say, Provo police Lt. Jerry Harper said in October the man had been living with his father.
"He was last seen by his father who saw him leaving the house in his car," Harper said.
Say's red car was found in Provo's Alligator Park at 620 N. 3300 West the next day along with several of his personal belongings, including a picture ID and a cellular phone near the edge of the Provo River. Despite an exhaustive two-day river search by police and search and rescue members, no other trace of the man was found.
Healey said the place where the unidentified body was found in the Provo River on Monday was only about half a mile down river from where police found Say's car.
Utah County Search and Rescue team members and divers with the Provo Fire Department used a raft and a net to carefully retrieve the body Monday evening in a process that took nearly three hours.
Once the remains were carefully extracted from the river in the net, searchers brought the body to shore and placed it in a vehicle for transport to the State Medical Examiner's Office for an autopsy.
Healey said the fact that the body was in cold water for more than six months may have helped to preserve it, thereby aiding in the identification.
"We have to wait until it's confirmed," he said.
If medical examiners can find specific clothing or items on the remains, a positive identification may come relatively fast, Healey said. However, if examiners have to rely on dental records or DNA, learning the individual's identity could take longer.
Police contacted Say's family about the discovery of the body Monday afternoon and the possibility that it may be their son, Healey said.
He said if it turns out to be Say, "it will hopefully help them to find some closure" instead of continuing to wonder what happened to their son.
In November, after searchers found Say's ID and phone, Harper said investigators were concerned over the fact Say had been missing for about three weeks. Though police hadn't found any evidence of foul play, neither had they ruled it out.
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D1.