Sheriff's deputies find body while searching for missing woman in American Fork Canyon

CEDAR HILLS — The search for a missing woman in American Fork Canyon came to an end Wednesday when a horse posse with the Utah County Sheriff's Officee located a body.

The woman's cause of death appeared to be suicide, said Utah County Sheriff's Sgt. Dallin Turner. Detectives were on their way to the scene to confirm whether the body was that of McKenna Miner, 19, who was the subject of Tuesday's search.

Turner was teary as he spoke about interactions with the Miner family after the discovery.

"It's the worst part of the job to come down and tell somebody we've located something, we know they're deceased ... it's just hard," he said.

Turner said the search and rescue teams arrived in the morning with horses, drones and helicopters and began focusing on an area northwest of the Tibble Fork Reservoir based on clues from the night before, but they sent the horse posse up the main Snake Creek Road to cover an area again.

The posse saw a trail about a mile and a half from the reservoir and followed the tracks, finding snowshoes still in packaging, and followed footprints from there until they found the body.

"If you're struggling with suicide, if you're struggling with anything with that nature, there's always hope. There's resources, there's things that are out there that can help you," Turner said.

The sheriff's office began searching for Miner on Tuesday, a day after her car was found by family members in the parking lot by Tibble Fork Reservoir in American Fork Canyon. The sheriff's office received a report that Miner, of Provo, had been hiking.

The search included the Utah Department of Public Safety's helicopter, which has thermal search capabilities, and other aircraft. The sheriff's horse posse was among those crews searching from the ground; others used snow machines and snowshoes to comb the canyon.

Searchers worked into the night before taking a break and returning to the canyon Wednesday morning.

Related topics