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SALT LAKE CITY -- After searching for more than eight hours, the Salt Lake City Police Department called off its latest search for 8-year-old Trejon Fite.*
"Despite the best efforts of numerous officers and agencies, it is greatly disappointing that we were not able to recover Trejon's body for his family," said Salt Lake City police spokeswoman Sgt. Robin Snyder. "Our thoughts and condolences go out to them as they cope with this tragedy."
The massive one-day search covered 14 miles of the Jordan River Surplus Canal. It started near California Avenue and Redwood Road and continued on to the Great Salt Lake. The first six miles was being covered on foot, focusing on the banks of the canal. The rest was searched by boat.
One area searchers focused on Thursday is the Redwood Road bridge, near the area where Trejon Fite first fell into the canal on June 13. Searchers say during their first attempts to search underneath the bridge, the water was too high.
On Thursday, searchers were able to use sonar equipment in the area, but the search didn't yield any results.
More than 100 officers from 10 law enforcement agencies, including: Salt Lake City Police Department, Salt Lake City Fire, Salt Lake City Parking Enforcement, Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office/Search and Rescue, West Valley City Police Department, Carbon County Sheriff's Office, Airport Police Department, South Jordan Fire Department, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and the Utah Department of Public Safety, were involved in the search. All of them, with the exception of the lead agency, volunteered their time and resources.
Snyder said, "It's not costing us anything essentially to do this. All of these agencies are bringing their own resources and offering them up to us to do this."
Snyder added, "You know, we always plan for the worst and hope for the best, and that's what we're doing today."
The Salt Lake City Police Department says though crews didn't find the body Thursday, the department will re-evaluate and decided whether another search will be beneficial.
*Earlier news reports listed the boy's name as Trejon Brown. Brown is his mother's last name, but Trejon's legal last name is Fite
E-mail: spark@ksl.com
