Paighten HarkinsPolice and volunteers scoured backcountry areas near Eureka on Friday in search of two teenagers who were reported missing nearly a week prior while traveling from Tooele.
Breezy Otteson, 17, and Riley Powell, 18, left for Eureka about 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 30 and haven’t been seen since, Otteson’s aunt Amanda Hunt said on her Facebook page. A family member has since filed missing-persons reports with the Juab and Tooele County sheriff’s departments.
The pair was driving a blue early 2000s model Jeep Grand Cherokee.
(Courtesy Amanda Hunt) Riley Powell
Volunteers with the Utah Off Road Recovery Team organized a search of the Eureka-area and the East Tintic Mountains beginning Friday morning.
All on-duty Juab County deputies were dispatched to the area to look for Otteson and Powell, department spokeswoman Tanielle Callaway said.
In neighboring Tooele County, a search team dispersed about 8 a.m. Friday, Hunt said.
Crews were searching for the pair as of 4:30 p.m.
This story will be updated with more information as it becomes available.
Paighten is an Enterprise reporter at The Salt Lake Tribune. She covers a variety of topics, including business, health, growth and the legal justice system — sometimes all at once. She is from southern Oklahoma, and lived and worked in the state, most recently at the Tulsa World, before starting at The Tribune in October 2017.