Emery County Sheriff Greg Funk reports on Easter Weekend

By Patsy Stoddard

Emery County Sheriff Greg Funk reports on Easter weekend:  Sheriff Funk said, “We had a search and rescue in the same spot Ding and Dang canyon, that we did last week. An injured lady was brought out on a backboard and carried for two miles. Her knee was disjointed. We had 30 of our search and rescue show up. It was an amazing turnout. This was about 7:30 p.m. last night, but it got dark and the chopper couldn’t come in. The lady was from back east, but went to school at the University of Utah and is now working for the state of Utah. It was so dark in the canyon that night it felt like we were in a coal mine. We waded through water bringing her out.
“We arrested three on a burglary and assault and they are in jail.
“Our deputies handled some missing person calls and our search and rescue went out on a call of a missing 6 year old girl. The call came in about 11 p.m. Luckily the little girl was found asleep curled up in a sleeping bag. Everyone thought she was out with the other kids playing night games. So we were very relieved she was found.
“We had a 14 year old boy who took off from his camp and was riding his four wheeler. He became disoriented and was lost and couldn’t find his way back to camp. He rode for hours. Eventually he ran out of gas. He climbed a hill to where he had phone reception and called 911. Dispatch was able to keep him on the phone until his phone was dying. We were able to locate him and the hard part was getting him reunited with his parents because they were out searching for him. They were near the Bakers Ranch area. Eventually we located his parents and were able to reunite the family.
“There was another man who is actually on our search and rescue and he was in between Chute and the Crack Canyon area. He made it out on his own because his vehicle was gone when we got back out. He called the next day and said he was OK.
“We had a lot of officers out. There were three BLM officers helping and three from state parks. We had six deputies out each day on extra shifts with a morning shift and a night shift until midnight.
“I want to thank everyone who helped out with Easter weekend. It was busy, but we were able to keep everyone safe thanks to all the agencies pitching in to work together. Our search and rescue went out on four calls and there was a good turnout each time. It was super busy on the desert and there were a lot of camps. There are still a lot of people out there due to spring break,” said Sheriff Funk.