3 bodies found near Jensen believed to be missing Vernal men


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JENSEN, Uintah County — Police believe the bodies of three Vernal men missing since May were discovered in a river Wednesday morning.

A search team looking for Robert Alan Spoon, 33, Jason Ralph Tilt, 33, and Jacob Douglas Tilt, 29, located a pickup truck in the Green River at about 11:30 a.m. that matched the description of the truck the men were last seen in, Uintah County Sheriff Vance Norton said.

The bodies of three men were found inside the truck and were transported to the State Medical Examiner's Office in Salt Lake City to determine the cause of death and confirm the identity of the bodies, Norton said.

The three men were last seen in a black Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck on May 22. At the time they were reported missing, family told police they were concerned because all three men had cellphones with them, but each had either run out of battery life or had been turned off.

The family of one of the missing men found a boot and a headlight that matched up with the missing vehicle while searching for the missing men, Norton said. That discovery led investigators to believe that the truck they were driving went into the water.

The evidence was found about 1/4 mile downriver from where it was believed the truck went into the river. In addition, the last pings from the mens’ cellphones were centered near where the truck was found underwater, Norton said.

“Once that was established, that’s when we came in to help with the case, started looking and ended up having some equipment — a sonar boat — go over and identify something in the water,” he said.

Investigators were able to pull the truck out of the water and moved it to an undisclosed location. The case remains under investigation and members of three agencies were working to piece together why the vehicle went off the road and into the river.

Norton said it’s possible the driver swerved to avoid a deer before leaving the roadway. He said there was no reason to suspect foul play.

“We just don’t know at this time,” he said.

Norton added he hopes the discovery Wednesday will give closure to the families of the missing men.

“We have a great community out and everyone cares about everybody,” he said. “We were hopeful that they just didn’t want to be found for awhile and were hanging out, but we’re thinking today confirmed where they had been and it’s sad. It’s very sad for the family and we hope this will help with getting some closure for them.”

Contributing: Nicole Vowell

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