5-year-old's body is found in river

MOAB — The body of the 5-year-old girl who vanished in the waters of the Colorado River three days ago was found Monday.

"We're just happy to bring some sort of closure to the family," said Utah Highway Patrol trooper Cameron Roden a couple hours after the child's body was brought to the surface by a Utah Department of Public Safety dive team shortly after 5 p.m. "It wasn't an easy search."

Roden said searchers used sonar equipment to help find the child, Danica Maestas, still inside the vehicle and unbuckled.

"After they crashed, her 11-year-old sister undid her belt, trying to get her out," he said.

The car plunged off a cliff on Friday. The driver, Evelyn M. Maestas, 60, of Mancos, Colo., and her daughter Tori, 11, escaped through a broken window and got out of the river. They told police they were unable to get Danica out of the car and saw her inside the vehicle as it sank.

The car plunged 60 feet before hitting the river's frigid waters.

Roden said the three-day search was especially challenging because searchers didn't know how far the vehicle may have drifted before it sank and the bottom of the river was scattered with large boulders that looked like possible vehicles on the sonar.

— Ben Winslow and Jacob Hancock