Utah closes off abandoned mines in West Desert, where bodies of murdered teens were found

State officials have closed off 56 mines in Utah’s historic Tintic Mining District, including the shaft near Eureka where the bodies of murdered teens Brelynne “Breezy” Otteson and Riley Powell were recovered in 2018.

For years, Otteson and Powell’s family have called for the state to seal those mines, because, as Powell’s father Bill has said, they’re “just sitting right there waiting for someone to fall in them or get put in them.”

The state was planning to seal the mine where Otteson and Powell were found prior to their deaths, according to Steve Fluke, manager of the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining’s abandoned mine reclamation program. But the process took years partly because that mine, Tintic Standard No. 2, and others were on private property, albeit “easily accessible” and near popular off-highway vehicle trails, Fluke said in a statement.

Environmental and cultural surveys also must be completed before any work can begin, Fluke said. Once greenlit, crews can backfill mines to seal them, or add polyurethane foam, grates, gates and walls.

“Safeguarding these mines ensures that future risks are minimized or eliminated,” Fluke said in the statement, “improving public safety.”

Crews found Otteson, 17, and Powell, 18, on March 28, 2018, on a ledge about 100 feet down the Tintic Standard No. 2 mine. A jury in 2022 found Jerrod Baum guilty of all charges filed against him in connection with the teens’ 2017 slayings. Prosecutors at the time said Baum killed the couple after learning his then-girlfriend, whom he had forbidden from having male friends, had been hanging out with Otteson and Powell.

Court records state Baum kidnapped the teens and brought them to the mine in Juab County, where he beat and stabbed Powell and cut Otteson’s throat before dropping their bodies into the mine shaft.

Amanda Davis, Otteson’s aunt, said the teens’ families are thankful the mine is finally covered. The family erected a memorial near the mine, and during visits over the last six years, Davis said they have seen the ground around the shaft erode, making an existing “safety hazard” even less safe.

The memorial is still accessible just below the site, and Davis said she hopes people continue to visit.

“[Crews] provided the utmost respect during the process of covering the mine,” the families said in a post on the teens’ memorial Facebook page, “respecting the kids, and respecting the memorial during the duration of the project.”

The Tintic Mining District in Utah’s west desert was once one of the state’s most important mining regions, with deposits of silver, gold and other base-metal ores, like copper and zinc, according to a 1979 U.S. Geological Survey report. In the early 1900s, the area hosted one of the most productive silver mines in the world.

The district grew during booms, its landscapes increasingly mottled by mines and the towns that cropped up to support miners, but it also stagnated during busts. Mines no longer seen as productive were abandoned, with crews leaving behind equipment, piles of waste rock and deep, gaping holes in the ground, according to the Division of Oil, Gas and Mining.

Lawmakers passed the Utah Mined Land Reclamation Act in 1975, making it illegal to abandon mines. The Abandoned Mine Reclamation Program, started in 1983, has helped seal approximately 7,000 mines. An estimated 17,000 more remain open throughout the state.

Fluke said his crews will continue closing mines in the Tintic Mining District in the next phase of their project, which will address around 50 more open mines. Crews are doing similar work across the state, including sealing old uranium mines near Moab.

Crews don’t check mines for bodies before beginning work, although Fluke said he has gotten that question a lot, especially since the 2009 disappearance of Susan Powell. He said that sort of recovery work would be too “time consuming and difficult,” but they do help law enforcement with such work when asked.