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KSL Newsradio's Marc Giauque reporting A small piece of space blanket, found nine months after Kim Beverly and Carole Wetherton disappeared in the High Uintas, was the key that led searchers to their bodies. If they could have walked in a straight line, searchers say the women were only about a mile and a half from their car.
Artifacts found at the site reveal how the pair tried to find shelter as a late summer storm moved in, and as temperatures plummeted.
It is now June, 2004. A helicopter takes members of the Summit County Search and Rescue team into the Middle Fork of the Weber River on a training mission. Not an hour into the exercise, someone finds a small piece of space blanket.
"The searcher that located that, basically if this were a criminal case, we'd say cracked the case," said Captian Alan Siddoway. The hikers' remains were found not far away, in some rocks. "It had obviously been used as a shelter. The day packs that they had, the contents of the packs that they had had been scattered about."
Siddoway says there were water bottles, one still with water inside, a map, some matches but no evidence of a fire, and of course the camera. The film was sent to a special lab in Montana, where the photos were developed.
"They were extremely valuable, because they told us the tale of what the conditions were like," said Siddoway. It's those conditions that family members want to underscore.
"It's not a local park, it's an area that is fraught with dangers," said Wetherton's husband and Beverly's step-father Jim Wetherton. He helped search for his step-daughter and his wife after they disappeared. He thinks a simple device could have made the difference.
"I know that without a GPS, I would have gotten lost while I was hiking up there," said Wetherton." I'm also confident that if the girls had had a GPS, that would have been their chance of getting out of there alive."
Still, there are thousands who hike the popular trails. David Ream of the Kamas Ranger District says just one miscalculation can be costly.
"Relatively speaking it's a fairly rare event overall for the people that do go out there and have a great time in the woods," said Ream. "Typically on a patrol out in the woods, I'll see people with shorts, flip flops, literally flip flops that you'd wear around the house and one bottle of water three miles back in the woods, on a little day hike."
Investigators say Kim and Carole were better prepared, but that they weren't ready for the extremes they faced. Ream says he never goes hiking without some essentials. "Essential gear I carry winter, spring, summer and fall.
They include a first aid kit, a waterproof garbage bag, some string, waterproof matches, some snacks and water, some extra non-cotton clothing, and a whistle.
"Everybody recognizes that sound, and will automatically head for that especially if you blow it multiple times," said Ream.
And beyond a GPS, which Ream says can deceive you if you don't know how to use it very well, carry a map, a compass, and your senses. He tells hikers they need to be consciences observers of the geography, their surroundings and the weather.
In spite of the ultimate outcome, Jim Wetherton, searchers and others from the community have formed strong bonds. Wetherton's church group in Georgia made a sizable donation to the Summit County Search and Rescue team.
