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Searchers found the body of a missing Bountiful teenager in Mueller Canyon Thursday morning, and investigators' attention shifted to the registered sex offender she talked to via the Internet.
Walter A. White, who police believe was among the last people to see Samantha Mikesell, was involuntarily committed to Lakeview Hospital for a mental evaluation before the search began.
Bountiful police questioned the 38-year-old Wednesday night at his Woods Cross home about the disappearance of the 16-year-old, who first was reported as a runaway on Sunday.
Bountiful Detective Paul Cardell noticed White, who was convicted in 1996 of lewdness involving a child, had scratches on his arms and face, and he admitted picking up Mikesell Sunday from her job at a Dee's Restaurant in Bountiful.
At that point police took him to the station for questioning and searched his home and car, confiscating his computer and a mattress, Lt. S.A. Gray said.
White told detectives he had been with the Viewmont High School student in the foothills east of Bountiful but does not remember anything between the time he was with her and the time he woke up in the Lakeview Hospital.
Officers said Davis County sheriff's deputies found him disoriented in the foothills earlier this week and had him taken to the hospital.
Police said others have told them the pair went into the canyon intending to commit suicide.
White met the teen through his son or stepson, police said, and they would talk on the Internet.
The search for Mikesell began Wednesday night, but was called off due to darkness. It resumed this morning, and the teen's body was found around 9 a.m. There was no obvious signs of trauma. The medical examiner will perform an autopsy.
Cardell said there's no evidence of a sexual relationship between the two. "As far as I know they were just friends," he said.