From Deseret News archives:
Provo River yields body
Police suspect he is man who went missing in October
The body was discovered at about 2 p.m., just off Center Street at about 3800 West.
Two employees from the Challenging Leadership Adventure Systems Inc. Ropes Course, located just east of where the body was found, had taken a canoe onto the river to clear a logjam when they discovered the body pinned against the debris.
Police suspect the body may be that of Sitha Say, a 22-year-old Provo man who was reported missing last October but were waiting on the results of a medical examination, scheduled for later today, before making any conclusions.
In early November, Provo police officers found Say's car in a Provo River Trail parking lot about half-mile upstream from where the body was discovered Monday.
At that time, search teams found a bag of Say's belongings on the riverbank a short distance away from his vehicle, but an intense, two-day search of the river and the surrounding area turned up nothing.
Provo Police Capt. Rick Healey said he is not aware of any other people reported missing near the Provo River.
"(Say) is the only one at this point we're aware of," he said. "This was just around a few bends in the river (from where Say's car was found)."
Rescue workers pulled the body out at about 5:15 p.m., three hours after receiving the call from CLAS Ropes Course workers. Healey said the hard part of the operation was setting everything up, but credited Utah County search-and-rescue teams for setting the operation up well and running it efficiently.
"Utah County Search and Rescue did a very good job getting set up properly so we didn't lose evidence, if there was any," he said. "We were able to use a net so nothing would go downstream when we pulled him away from the log. . . . Sometimes it takes a little while to get set up, to get the ropes and everything where you want them to be, but once they got it all set up, they just cruised right in there and were able to do it just fine."
Rescue workers used a canoe and a raft to run stabilizing ropes across the river, which held the watercraft in place while workers examined the scene and carefully removed the body.
E-mail: jtwitchell@desnews.com
