Utah family seeks answers after roadside memorial vanishes near St. George

ST. GEORGE — For six years, a roadside memorial stood along state Route 7 near St. George where Jayden Snyder lost his life in an accident.

His family built it to honor the 20-year-old, who died after a tire came apart, causing his vehicle to roll.

As awful a tragedy as it was, and continues to be, for the Snyder family, they say Jayden's decision to become an organ donor helps them feel like he's still out there.

"We feel like he's on adventures still," said Daynene Snyder, who is Jayden's mother. "Four lives were actually saved with the kidneys, the heart and the liver. And two lives were improved because his eyes were donated as well."

The memorial consisted of a handmade cross, flowers, solar lights and letters written to Jayden.

"There was a small little panda bear mug from when he was little. He loved panda bears," said his mother. "So his nieces and nephews, brothers and sister, and others would write notes to him and leave them in that panda bear mug."

Then, about two weeks ago, it disappeared.

"It's not even like it was all destroyed and taken," she said. "It was all gone."

Snyder said her husband discovered the memorial was missing during one of his visits to the St. George area.

"He was almost hyperventilating, and I thought something had happened. I was like, 'Ray, are you OK? Like what's happened?' He's like, 'I'm not OK.' He said the memorial is gone," said Daynene Snyder.

The family contacted both the Utah Highway Patrol and the Utah Department of Transportation.

They say both agencies told them they did not remove the memorial and wouldn't without contacting the family first.

"We want to respect people's rights to grieve and to memorialize their loved ones," said John Gleason, a spokesperson for the UDOT. "Unless it becomes a safety concern, we generally don't do anything with those memorials."

Daynene Snyder said the UDOT worker she called in southern Utah also told her the department had recently received an anonymous message asking why roadside memorials were allowed and why they had not been removed.

She said UDOT told her two other families in the area had previously contacted the agency after discovering their roadside memorials had also disappeared.

Since posting about her experience on Facebook, Snyder said two more families have reached out to her about their memorials disappearing in St. George as well.

"Who wakes up one morning and says, 'I am going to go destroy some of these roadside memorials where somebody was killed?'" said Daynene Snyder. "Who wakes up that morning and says, 'That's what we're going to go do today?'"

No one knows for sure if the disappearing memorials are connected.

However, the Snyder family is now offering a $500 reward for information leading to the return of their memorial items.

"I would say to whoever took it, do you still have our stuff? Can you give these families back these things that they put there that meant something? It means a lot to us," said Daynene Snyder. "We would like it back."

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