The death of a Weber County boy may have been from his father accidentally shooting him, or from another hunter's stray bullet.
Daggett County Sheriff Rick Ellsworth said Friday an investigation has not determined what happened.
"As far as I'm concerned, [the case is] closed," Ellsworth said Friday. "The state crime lab didn't feel there's anything further to pursue. The family is OK with this. They understand."
Nick "Bubba" Joynt, 15, died Oct. 19 while hunting elk with his father and other family members in Daggett County's Rifle Canyon.
At first, officers said Joynt's father, Doug Joynt, accidentally shot his son. But the Joynt family refuted that, saying the shot must have come from a hunter elsewhere in the canyon.
The family did not return a phone message left for them Friday at their home in Farr West.
Ellsworth said investigators were not able to find signs of another hunter, nor could they find the bullet which killed and passed through Nick Joynt. The sheriff's office and crime lab investigators even used lasers to try to determine the angle at which the bullet would have struck Nick Joynt.
Nothing provided an answer to who shot the teenager, Ellsworth said.
At the time the bullet struck, Doug Joynt was about 15 feet away from his son, holding a .270-caliber rifle under his right armpit with the barrel pointed forward, Ellsworth said. Doug Joynt has said he doesn't remember what happened, the sheriff said.
