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HANKSVILLE, Wayne County — The body of a woman has been recovered by searchers in Wayne County.
According to a statement from the Wayne County Sheriff's Office, search and rescue crews began looking for a missing person on Dec. 27 between Caineville and Hanksville, along state Route 24. Several agencies, a drone, the Department of Public Safety helicopter, all-terrain vehicles, motorcycles and horses were used to search the area without success.
On Saturday, search crews went back to the area and set up a command center along S.R. 24. Just after 11 a.m., a team on motorcycles located the body of a woman near the Fremont River, about a half-mile from the command center, the sheriff's office stated.
"A positive identification of the body could not be made given the conditions of the remains," according to the sheriff's office.
The body was taken to the Utah State Medical Examiner's Office to confirm the woman's identity and determine how she died.
It was not immediately known if the case is connected to a Tennessee woman reported missing around the same time.
At the beginning of January, several posts on social media asked Wayne County residents to be on the lookout for a 46-year-old woman from Tennessee whose Porsche "was found abandoned, with the door left open and her belongings inside," just off S.R. 24 near Hanksville. The posts say Wayne County Search and Rescue crews had conducted two days of searches with no success. At that time, authorities were concerned that the woman wandered off and possibly became disoriented, without proper gear.
